Why I don't do installer builds

Discussion of third-party/unofficial Firefox/Thunderbird/SeaMonkey builds.
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mmoy
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Why I don't do installer builds

Post by mmoy »

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=74908

I don't want someone putting up one of my builds and then losing his whole program files folder. Someone really needs to fix this bug or get it out of the code or disable it. It's been around far too long.
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bangbang023
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Post by bangbang023 »

yeah there is just too much risk involved if you ask me. I don't need to be blamed for something like that if it happened to be my build.
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fishbert
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Post by fishbert »

Installer builds are designed to make installation slick and easy for the "average user" who may not be all that comfortable messing with too much on their computer -- these are the same people who will completely freak out if their other programs all of a sudden 'disappear'. When things like this happen with installer builds, it raises the "is this safe?" question, and that's going to push some people away from the project as a whole. The trade-off just isn't worth it. These projects should ditch the installer entirely, as far as I'm concerned.
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shadytrees
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Post by shadytrees »

http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=233625
For some unknown reason, there's a lack of activity (or communication that there is such an activity) that somebody's working on this. Eventually, the installer should be safe, as this is one of the last bugs in the installer.
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fishbert
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Post by fishbert »

hao2lian wrote:... should be safe, as this is one of the last bugs ...
famous last words
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Nitin
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Post by Nitin »

What's up with the last few comments on that bug?
I wish people stop treating bugzilla as a forum.
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Carson
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Post by Carson »

In mid March I posted a question here: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... highlight=
asking what the point to an installer was. I received some good information, and then one of the most caustic replies I've ever had in this forum.

The thread is not in its original condition, as I removed the list of steps along which I preferred to work without an installer. At the time, I admit, I was feeling pretty low as a result of reading that last unexpected reply. It remains there, if you're interested in the perils of asking questions on a forum. I have not placed a great many posts since.

Personally, as I dared to say in March, I like manipulating the downloaded zip file to my location of choice, and fine-tuning my desktop array and ProfMan settings accordingly. I'm not an expert at all, but the manual installation seems very easy to me, a rather "sweet" little operation among far more daunting challenges in everyday computer work.

Each to his own, however, and obviously there are those who prefer an installer; my guess is it lets people know they're doing it right.
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fishbert
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Post by fishbert »

Going off on the tangent of that other thread.....
You say you deleted some of your posts; did you delete one towards the end, or was that really his response to your "Thanks, guys" post? Looks to me like he had a chip on his shoulder from the get-go -- I wouldn't think much of it.
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Carson
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Post by Carson »

I think that was it. I had just detailed the steps I took, and liked to take, in setting up a build. Looking at it 2 months later, it's no big deal. At the time it had a real sting, because I was just asking for info. I really wanted to know why the installer was considered so important--thought maybe I was missing something. That's when a person has his guard right down, when he's trying to find something out, so a few words can carry a real lash. No problem now. Plus these forums have been VERY good to me over the long haul, and I've met a lot of really nice people and learned a lot from them, so it was just a stone in the road. It came back to me when I saw THIS posting about "Why I don't do installer builds."

All's well that ends well.
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