On Mon, 2006-01-30 at 19:52 -0800, Joshua D. Drake wrote: > > > > > >On my Debian systems, I can install PostgreSQL quite readily via the > >command "apt-get install postgresql-8.1", which can get GUIed at least > >somewhat if I run aptitude, synaptic, or such... > > > > > Yes Christopher, you can... I can, and Devrim can.... > > As more and more people come on board people are going to want to > download a .exe (a metaphor), > double click and have it open an installer, they will then want to click > next, next, continue, finish.
There is such a thing as best practices. If you install postgresql in this glorious graphical manner, what will prevent you from accidentally upgrading a shared library which postgresql depends upon? Nothing, really, unless this installer is going to be able to customize, build, and install a native package on all the target operating systems. How will you do an orderly upgrade from one revision to the next, including all the dependencies? How will you distribute security updates? I predict this form of installation will cause a great many support headaches as users report problems which are caused by oddball compilers, strange CFLAGS, unreleased or strangely patched versions of shared libraries and headers, and so forth. > You don't get that with apt-get install. Right, with apt-get install you get a package built with a known-good compiler, known-sane configure flags, and a method of pinning the dependencies, which passes at the very least a smoketest on Alpha, AMD64, ARM, HPPA, x86, IA64, 640x0, MIPS, PowerPC, S/390, and SPARC. > There is a reason that even Oracle has a graphical installer on Linux, > because most people installing > the software: > > A. Don't know how to use it > B. Probably don't know how to use Linux > C. Don't want to. Oracle's graphical installer is a material impediment to Oracle adoption. The installer only works on systems where particular versions of Java and Motif libraries are available. On 64-bit Opteron systems it only works with the peculiar 32-bit thunking tree favored by Red Hat and hardly anybody else. If I could install Oracle on Debian/AMD64 with a shell script, I'd drop Postgresql in a heartbeat. Obviously anybody is welcome and able to just write whatever software they feel is needed, but go ahead and count me among the skeptics. -jwb ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 3: Have you checked our extensive FAQ? http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faq