On Sat, Sep 11, 2021 at 11:43 PM Oliver Rettig <[email protected]> wrote: > > I am still using the netbeans buildin installing stuff but it was always > difficult for me to figure out how to implement specific needs. Main > disadvanatage > for me was need of a jre installed on the pc to use the installer and the lack > of a tool to includes the app-icons in the executables. But it was ok for me. > side note:
I assume you mean NBI (NetBeans Installer) ? It does indeed support an embedded JRE so there's no need for a JRE to already exist on the target computer. There's an annoyance there because you must create a self-extracting archive of the JRE using specifically Info-ZIP (and not say 7-ZIP) ... logged as Bugzilla 239238 (https://bz.apache.org/netbeans/show_bug.cgi?id=239238). I think NBI's main selling point - besides being almost infinitely flexible - is the fact that you can build installers on any platform. For example you can build an installer for Windows on Linux. Competing solutions typically cannot do this. Its main drawback is its complexity and frankly lack of clear and concise documentation. The second major drawback is that it clearly focus on NetBeans Platform applications. I'm not sure it can be customized as a more generic tool, i.e. work for any kind of Java application. This will for sure be a deal breaker for many. Installers produced by NBI are merely a native executable. So no support for things like MSI. Having said all this and depending on what your target audience is: I believe Installers are less important than what they used to be. Nowadays ZIP distributions are just as popular and I would claim that if your target audience is somewhat technical then they may even *prefer* using a ZIP distribution of your application rather than an Installer. Back in the days it was normal for an application on Windows to create tons of stuff in the Registry. In this respect the Installer/Uninstaller was important. In Windows-centric corporate environments Installers may have a place because it is sometimes the only way the organization will allow the application to enter their kingdom. But the ZIP distribution has the advantage that you immediately bypass the Windows UAC which can be somewhat of a hazzle to work with. Launchers, on the other hand, definitely still have their place. I believe the fact that a desktop application is written in Java is irrelevant for the end user. The Launcher hides that and provides a native execution binary as the entry point to the application. YMMV. /Lars ยจ --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] For further information about the NetBeans mailing lists, visit: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/NETBEANS/Mailing+lists
