I wonder what you think about installing software on Linux?
Of course, installing software included in the repositories is easier than installing software on Microsoft - but in case of niche software, of beta or test versions or in case of very small applications Linux is pretty hostile as a platform since such software cannot be included in the distribution's repositories.
There were once talks about a unified package format, but nothing came out of it, so at the moment if you want to bring your software to Linux you have to wait for the community to pick it up - or you need several people (=quite some money) with experience to prepare packages.
In other cases you should not even consider Linux as a platform at all!
I think that is one of the major drawbacks of Linux, and quite frankly, the main reason why I still cannot recommend Linux to normal computer users (as in "students").
What do you think?
Thoughts about installing software
Posted by
Steve Carl
at
2007-05-24 10:48
Sounds like Linux needs someone to write a Linux version of "InstallSheild".
I have to admit, Linux all over the map on this one in general: If one is using Ubuntu or another Debian based Linux, then Synaptic is pretty easy. With over 20,000 packages in the repository, ones chances of getting some pretty niche software are pretty good. I never use all the packages for doing various sorts of esoteric math, for example.
Then there is the advent of cnr.com: if your distro is supported by CNR, it will be incredibly easy to install software it supports. Is CNR going to become the Linux InstallSheild? I don't know. I am watching that one with interest.
For new folks to the platform. most of what one needs will be already packaged up someplace: For the more experienced, the standard config / make / make install is pretty routine, but nothing I would ask a desktop user to do. I would expect in a corporate setting that the support team would know how to do it.
I use "alien" all the time to pull rPms into Debian: OpenOffice does not package .debs for example. So why doesn't dpkg just call alien if it needs to? Dunno. it seems like it should. Not the same thing as a unified format, but a short hop to making it a unified package install. Not all RPMS install on Debian based systems, or course. The Linux Standards Base seems to have helped out there though: I have had less problems recently than I used to with it. Things are in more standard locations.
As for students: I would ask: students of what? Computer Science students should have absolutely no issues here. There is no better OS for learning how a computer works than Linux. And maybe learning it will have one of them someday write the InstallSheild program we need...
Other students just needing a computer to write term papers should not either. OpenOffice is standard almost everywhere, or easy to install. Business students just need a presentation package or spreadsheet: No Problem. Covered.
Science students? Linux is your very best friend: There are more niche packages for things like Astronomy or math or whatever than on any other OS. And it should be fairly easy for the teacher to put together the install instructions.
Typing classes? : There are several typing tutors. I need to run one and learn how to type myself.
History. English.
I can't think of a student classification that should not be able to use Linux as it stands today. It might need a bit of guidence from the school as to the best version for the need at hand, but Ubuntu / Mint should cover most of the cases I can think of.
Where all this unravels a bit is the small software developer wanting to support multiple platforms with their code. How does one write for OS.X and Linux from a common code base? Sure, it's easy to make everything gtk based, and all, but then the app looks like X on OS.X. MS Windows is no problem: the gtk package for it is already pretty mature, and looks windowsy.
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Of course, installing software included in the repositories is easier than installing software on Microsoft - but in case of niche software, of beta or test versions or in case of very small applications Linux is pretty hostile as a platform since such software cannot be included in the distribution's repositories.
There were once talks about a unified package format, but nothing came out of it, so at the moment if you want to bring your software to Linux you have to wait for the community to pick it up - or you need several people (=quite some money) with experience to prepare packages.
In other cases you should not even consider Linux as a platform at all!
I think that is one of the major drawbacks of Linux, and quite frankly, the main reason why I still cannot recommend Linux to normal computer users (as in "students").
What do you think?
I have to admit, Linux all over the map on this one in general: If one is using Ubuntu or another Debian based Linux, then Synaptic is pretty easy. With over 20,000 packages in the repository, ones chances of getting some pretty niche software are pretty good. I never use all the packages for doing various sorts of esoteric math, for example.
Then there is the advent of cnr.com: if your distro is supported by CNR, it will be incredibly easy to install software it supports. Is CNR going to become the Linux InstallSheild? I don't know. I am watching that one with interest.
For new folks to the platform. most of what one needs will be already packaged up someplace: For the more experienced, the standard config / make / make install is pretty routine, but nothing I would ask a desktop user to do. I would expect in a corporate setting that the support team would know how to do it.
I use "alien" all the time to pull rPms into Debian: OpenOffice does not package .debs for example. So why doesn't dpkg just call alien if it needs to? Dunno. it seems like it should. Not the same thing as a unified format, but a short hop to making it a unified package install. Not all RPMS install on Debian based systems, or course. The Linux Standards Base seems to have helped out there though: I have had less problems recently than I used to with it. Things are in more standard locations.
As for students: I would ask: students of what? Computer Science students should have absolutely no issues here. There is no better OS for learning how a computer works than Linux. And maybe learning it will have one of them someday write the InstallSheild program we need...
Other students just needing a computer to write term papers should not either. OpenOffice is standard almost everywhere, or easy to install. Business students just need a presentation package or spreadsheet: No Problem. Covered.
Science students? Linux is your very best friend: There are more niche packages for things like Astronomy or math or whatever than on any other OS. And it should be fairly easy for the teacher to put together the install instructions.
Typing classes? : There are several typing tutors. I need to run one and learn how to type myself.
History. English.
I can't think of a student classification that should not be able to use Linux as it stands today. It might need a bit of guidence from the school as to the best version for the need at hand, but Ubuntu / Mint should cover most of the cases I can think of.
Where all this unravels a bit is the small software developer wanting to support multiple platforms with their code. How does one write for OS.X and Linux from a common code base? Sure, it's easy to make everything gtk based, and all, but then the app looks like X on OS.X. MS Windows is no problem: the gtk package for it is already pretty mature, and looks windowsy.
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