[Discuss] Firefox with RedHat Fedora

[R. McFarlane]

On 1/17/07 2:41 PM, Lloyd D Budd wrote:

> On 1/17/07, Murray Strome <wmstrome at shaw.ca> wrote:
>>
>> just laments the fact that there are so many posts asking "how to
>> install" Firefox when the directions on the Mozilla site are so easy to
>> find.
> 
> That is why a significant percentage of the Linux community is working on
> Software installation on Linux: Today, it sucks
> http://ianmurdock.com/?p=388
> http://ianmurdock.com/?p=391
> 
>> This is essentially how I eventually solved the problem (I called it
>> ~/.mozilla.bak).
> 
> Good to hear.


	While I agree that as a whole software installation is not easy in 
Linux, but this is only when compared to windows and MacOS.
	The various package management systems used in the Linux distro's is 
typically good enough and saves the average Linux user the trouble of 
compiling the software.
	In my own experience with RedHat, the only times I had difficulty with 
installing software was when the software could not have it's 
dependencies met. This was either due to incorrect package configuration 
or inadequate dependencies.
	I have found that in using Ubuntu, only the lack of dependent packages 
has been a problem and that has only been on very rare occasions.

	As for windows, they need to learn from Apple and their MacOS. For 
decades now, most MacOS applications only needed to be copied from their 
install media to the internal hard drive to complete an installation. 
When it came time to "uninstall" the application, dropping it in the 
trash made this possible.
	Now with MacOS X, the method is still essentially the same other than 
applications are now "packages". If I recall correctly, this method was 
brought over from Next and the NextStep OS team.

	In my humble opinion, software as a "package" is the best method. 
Simply drag and drop and the install is complete.

-- 

www.mcfarlanecomputing.net