On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 8:33 AM, Richard Johnson <
[email protected]> wrote:

> On Thu, May 26, 2011 at 11:03:42PM -0500, Christopher Forsythe wrote:
> > We'll always present the current version as a downloadable version on the
> > website (and when I say always, that is until December 21, 2012. My
> > birthday, and apparently the end of the world. Or until we decide
> > different).
>
> Heh, good enough.
>
> > That said, I see absolutely nothing wrong with the design you just
> > mentioned.
>
> Hmm, I really thought my first message in this thread was clear.  How about
> a few scenarios to help understanding?
>
> 1) Growl is installed for all users.  Sparkle checkes and notifies a
> regular, non-admin user about the update.  User has Sparkle download it and
> is asked for admin user name and password to install.  The user does not
> have that login, so overwriting the old version with the new fails.
>
>
Later that week an admin updates it. Not an issue.


> 2) The Mac is on a 32kbps satellite net at $50/Mbyte or on a 24kbps
> dialup.  Updates are provided periodically on mailed DVD.  Users know
> better than to download stuff across that link (and know as well how to
> disable Google's attempts to auto-update, etc.).
>
>
This user should disable update checking, and know better in the first
place. Plus this is their own fault for where they choose to live or where
they choose to do business (I assume it's mostly the latter with people who
work on rigs in the gulf and other remote locations).

I've worked with folks who are on these satellite connections. Not a single
time did they care about how much bw they used, since the bw usage was a
write-off for the cost of doing business typically.

However, if someone chooses to live in some remote location that requires
this, then that is the price that they pay for where they live. Just like my
living in Houston requires owning a automobile per person for most people,
since the public transportation system is horrible. There are quirks to
where you choose to live that you must deal with.


We're not going to base our software releases around a very small percentage
of the population who should know what they are doing in order to minimize
their own costs. That's not our responsibility. Apparently it is yours.


> I actually face both those situations on systems I help support.  I hope
> listing them in greater detail helps you understand why a base version of
> any software package, with updates available only via Sparkle, is sub-
> optimal in general for real-world systems.
>
>
In this instance if they are paying 50 dollars a mb, then most likely they
are paying you a substantial fee in order to tell them how to minimize data
usage. I do not see where this scenario doesn't fit in with what we're
doing.

The simple fact is, is that if we provided an update which is just the
differences between updates, then that resolves this entirely for your
customers. So they would download Growl 3000. It would then update to Growl
3002, with only the changes from between Growl 3000 and Growl 3002. I do not
see how this affects their bandwidth usage, since if they downloaded Growl
3002 directly, it would still be the same effective amount of bytes (give or
take a few k).

Regardless, I believe we have derailed this thread enough. I will keep in
mind that when doing updates we should provide a reasonable update on the
main page. However, if we change updating mechanisms and it's easier on us,
then it will be your job to send those guys their dvd of Growl updates.

Chris




> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Growl Discuss" group.
> To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> [email protected].
> For more options, visit this group at
> http://groups.google.com/group/growldiscuss?hl=en.
>
>

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"Growl Discuss" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to 
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at 
http://groups.google.com/group/growldiscuss?hl=en.

Reply via email to