Posted December 13, 2012
hedwards: I've installed a fair number of pieces of software like that over the years and I've never had any problems with it. Actually, I've had far fewer problems with it than I have had with regular packages because the proprietary packages were designed to be more resilient with regards to problems with other packages.
Unless you're trying to install a piece of software that really has to hook into the kernel, the worst you're likely to deal with is paths that are in weird places and static linking. Which for Gog games on Linux, you're largely doing anyways. Providing users with a particular install of Wine isn't fundamentally any different than providing Windows users with a DOSbox install for individual games.
Now, trying to use the same installer on different OSes is a completely different matter. And I'm not sure why anybody would expect that to work out well is beyond me.
AndrewC: This here and your last post is my problem with Linux users. User experience seems not to matter in the least; if you want Linux to be taken seriously as a consumer platform having a bash script that unpacks an archive in my home directory without asking me anything (or worse, having me specify a path as a command line argument) isn't the way to go forward. Unless you're trying to install a piece of software that really has to hook into the kernel, the worst you're likely to deal with is paths that are in weird places and static linking. Which for Gog games on Linux, you're largely doing anyways. Providing users with a particular install of Wine isn't fundamentally any different than providing Windows users with a DOSbox install for individual games.
Now, trying to use the same installer on different OSes is a completely different matter. And I'm not sure why anybody would expect that to work out well is beyond me.
...
You can't criticize Linux for lazy programmers. Asking for an installation path is possible.
hedwards: Windows is missing all sorts of basic functionality, just to force people to pay too much for an upgraded version.
JMich: ? What basic functionalities are missing from Windows? In a Linux distribution, I press print and it asks me to save a screenshot. In Windows I have to press print and open the abominable MS Paint.
Bottom line: The Linux and Windows families both include decent operating systems, which are somewhat ruined by incompetent companies. Both have their sets of working and dysfunctional software. In both systems I'm busy sorting the trash out, which others left.
Post edited December 13, 2012 by Perscienter