Ah, the power of UNIX-like operating system (which Linux is just one) is
sometimes seen as a disadvantage. There are many ways to install
software on these systems:
* the faithful tar solution
* variety of rpm solutions
* variety of dpkg and/or aptitude and/or apt-get
* yast
* autopackage
* synaptic
* alien
* pkgadd
* ips
* and many more
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package_management_system)
Then, again, Windows has multiple ways of installing as well. Some of
them include:
* Appsnap
* Appupdater
* Windows-get
* Cygwin
* GetIt
yet we don't show these alternative Windows ways in either the
administrator's guide or this general-purpose install guide.
I fall back to my first suggestion to "specify we focus on using
instructions for our installation packages" and then we write up
instructions for these official installation packages. The official
installations packages *used to* include the ./setup method which runs a
graphical install but, alas, the OpenOffice.org 3.1 releases do not
include this file!! :-(
Alex Fisher wrote:
Hi all. My 2c below....
<snip>
I use the graphical tools almost exclusively (I'll happily use a CLI for some
functions, for example I use urpmi for a quick install of something I need).
If we want to see a greater adoption of Linux in its various flavours, then we
need to focus on using the graphical tools provided with the various distros,
and move the non-graphical instructions to the Admin guide(s). Face it, the
average end user is completely dumbstruck by such a seemingly simple statement
as "Open a terminal...". Most ordinary end users will say "WTF?!?!?! What does
that mean?" and give up.
I propose to change these to something like "how to unpack using a
preinstalled unpack utility" in your favourite window manager. It would
focus on GNOME, with a small note about that the method is very similar
on most modern Linux desktops.
Why this pre-occupation with Gnome? Just because certain (IMO second-rate)
distros use that as the default, does *not* mean we should focus on it. I
think there are probably as many users of KDE as there are of Gnome (possibly
more, actually). And yes, I have tried both. In essence, we should *not*
/focus/ on any single WM or distro.
Strongly agreed to not focus on any specific distribution.
We need to have two separate sections for the extraction process (FileRoller
or whatever the default Gnome archiver is currently) and Ark for KDE users
(the procedure might be similar, but the interface is different).
We, at some point, have to draw the line somewhere.
The developers have walked this line quite well by releasing official
installs for
* Windows
* Linux RPM
* Linux DEB
* Linux 64 RPM
* Linux 64 DEB
* Linux IA64 RPM
* Solaris x86
* Solaris SPARC
* Mac OSX Intel
* Mac OSX PPC
As indicated near the beginning of this e-mail there are many
possibilities on how to install OpenOffice.org. The line of demarcation
is to "specify we focus on using instructions for our installation
packages." From the official download site, the installation packages
come as exe, tar.gz, and dmg files. The focus, then, would be on
installing using these file types and methods:
* Windows = setup.exe
* Linux RPM = tar -zxvf . . . rpm -ivh *.rpm
* Linux DEB = tar -zxvf . . . dpkg -i *.deb
* Linux 64 RPM = tar -zxvf . . . rpm -ivh *.rpm
* Linux 64 DEB = tar -zxvf . . . dpkg -i *.deb
* Linux IA64 RPM = tar -zxvf . . . rpm -ivh *.rpm
* Solaris x86 = ??? but consider
http://erinet.se/ooo/doc/instructions.html#sol
* Solaris SPARC = ??? but consider
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/Administration_Guide/Solaris
* Mac OSX Intel = ??? but consider
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/10209910
http://erinet.se/ooo/doc/instructions.html#sol
* Mac OSX PPC = ??? but consider
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org/Installation#Mac_OS_X
http://erinet.se/ooo/doc/instructions.html#sol
Then we need to have some tool-specific sections. For example, there needs to
be a section on using Rpmdrake (Mandriva), YaST, etc., starting with
instructions on how to set the extraction directory as a repository (I always
extract the the same directory, and have that directory set as an update
source, as an example).
If needed, I could work on the section dealing with Mandriva (which would
probably be of use to the Francophone group too), since that is my preferred
distro (I've been trying different distros for about 12 years now).
But, to return to my first point, the normal end user is confused when they
are told to do something at the command line. Most "younger" users have never
even seen a command line, really only those who have used DOS (or VMS, or
Unix) have any knowledge of typing commands into a CLI, and we are in the
minority. The User Guide *must* focus on th needs of the majority, and they
are the ones who really cannot be expected to understand how to use the
command line.
I think it is a safe assumption that the majority would be installing
OpenOffice.org through their distributor's graphical packager manager.
IF that assumption is true, then these manuals we are talking about
don't apply to them as the end user obtained OpenOffice.org through a
channel other than the official download site.
As a side note, we should in our documentation also "make reference to
alternative methods of install can be found elsewhere." :-)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@documentation.openoffice.org
For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@documentation.openoffice.org
