That's unfair to dotNetInstaller at least. NSIS doesn't quote qualify as a bootstrapper in my book despite several nice tutorials about how to use it as such. NSIS bundles bootstrapper responsibilities together with the installer responsibilities and falls short with anything beyond the relatively basic scenarios. You can squeeze more with complex scripting, but it's just a glorified batch file, something you'll enjoy only if your last assignment was programming a VAX. Try making sense of an NSIS script written by a setup developer after a year or two of work!
InstallShield bootstrapper in the recent versions of InstallShield is actually pretty good. I would feel major heartburn paying $ for a bootstrapper though, given the quality and feature set of the free options (I really think there's only one free option - dotNetInstaller, but I am bias being its maintainer and funding most of its development). We do all like the idea of Burn. It promises some nice features like a single progress bar. But I wonder how much I'll really care when it's out - "installation" is not a feature of my product just like "driving" is not a feature of my car. cheers -dB. dB. @ dblock.org Moscow|Geneva|Seattle|New York -----Original Message----- From: Goryuk, Alex [mailto:agor...@rosettastone.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2010 9:35 AM To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Bootstrapping and Burn Interesting reaction, care to explain why you wouldn't use NSIS as a bootstrapper? Out of the following: http://www.installsite.org/pages/en/msi/tips.htm#Launchers http://makemsi-manual.dennisbareis.com/bootstrapper_exe_programs.htm InstallShield's bootstrapper I haven't found a single one that can be automated, scripted, pass parameters to the bootstrapper, currently updated by the community / open source and works on every platform that currently exists and with the extensibility of NSIS. Alex On Aug 31, 2010, at 9:22 AM, Christopher Painter wrote: NSIS? Sorry, I'd rather go to the dentist. Christopher Painter, Author of Deployment Engineering Blog Have a hot tip, know a secret or read a really good thread that deserves attention? E-Mail Me ----- Original Message ---- From: "Goryuk, Alex" <agor...@rosettastone.com<mailto:agor...@rosettastone.com>> To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. <wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net<mailto:wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net>> Sent: Tue, August 31, 2010 8:10:20 AM Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Bootstrapping and Burn Have you guys tried using NSIS http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page ? On Aug 30, 2010, at 11:36 AM, Christopher Painter wrote: I've looked at dotNetInstaller and while it looks very interesting, there is no way you are going to learn that tool and get a working bootstrapper in 15 minutes. Christopher Painter, Author of Deployment Engineering Blog Have a hot tip, know a secret or read a really good thread that deserves attention? E-Mail Me ----- Original Message ---- From: dB. <dbl...@dblock.org<mailto:dbl...@dblock.org>> To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. <wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net<mailto:wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net>> Sent: Mon, August 30, 2010 8:23:36 AM Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Bootstrapping and Burn http://dotnetinstaller.codeplex.com will get you there in 15 minutes or so. dB. @ dblock.org<http://dblock.org> Moscow|Geneva|Seattle|New York -----Original Message----- From: Bruce Cran [mailto:br...@cran.org.uk] Sent: Monday, August 30, 2010 4:46 AM To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net<mailto:wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net> Subject: [WiX-users] Bootstrapping and Burn Hi, I realise Burn has been removed from WiX 3.5, but I'm wondering if the Visual Studio bootstrapper would be a good substitute or if I should wait for a 3.6 snapshot. My main requirement is a single file that users can download to do the installation, since I hate having a setup.exe and MSI file because it's confusing and seems unnecessary. The only component of Burn I've ever used before is setupbld, but I'm wondering - will the output of Burn be a single exe, or will it be like VS where you have to package lots of MSIs and an exe into a zip file for distribution? -- Bruce Cran ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sell apps to millions through the Intel(R) Atom(Tm) Developer Program Be part of this innovative community and reach millions of netbook users worldwide. Take advantage of special opportunities to increase revenue and speed time-to-market. 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