[Qgis-user] Why no proper QGis Windows installer yet?

[Carson Farmer]

hi Mats,
> As described on the QGis forum, the so-called installer leaves out 
> important components in the Express installation, and renders an 
> unusable system if an Advanced installation is attempted.
really? have you checked the lists for this. I know lot's of people who 
are using the osgeo4w install of qgis...
> Why is this so? Open Source should not be restricted to non-windows 
> operating systems. I think that's unfair, because many users are not 
> at liberty to choose their operating system.
this is certainly not what the qgis devs are trying to do (see below), 
and quite obviously so: take a look at the user manual, and you will see 
plenty of windows screen grabs along with the linux, osx, etc systems. 
while it's true most devs do develop on alternate os', every attempt is 
made to ensure that anyone and everyone can use the software.
> The front page of the QGis.org site labels QGis /a user friendly Open 
> Source Geographic Information System/.
> That is not true, if installing the program on Windows requires a 
> manual assembly of bits and pieces from all over, tweaks here and 
> there, with still no guarantee of a stable and functioning system.
hmmm, i would disagree. if you find the installer difficult to use, that 
is one thing (i recommend asking for help on the list as you have done), 
but i wouldn't say that qgis isn't user friendly, because it is...
> Would anybody care to explain what's going on, and if any improvement 
> is in sight?
This has been discussed quite a bit on the lists, and if you read over 
these posts you'll find that there is indeed work going on to put 
together a standalone windows build with all of the required components. 
In fact, I think you posted a test email to one of the many treads on 
this subject, perhaps you could check there, as there have been several 
new posts in the last few days...

The reason(s) for the lack of a standalone installer right now boils 
down to several factors, including (but certainly not limited to) a) the 
original windows maintainer actual has a life outside of QGIS (I know it 
sounds crazy ;-p), and was unable to get one together in time for this 
release, and b) putting together a windows build is significantly more 
difficult than other operating systems, especially when trying to tie 
together all of the individual components that qgis needs/is augmented 
by (i.e. GRASS), and c) GRASS and python support for a windows 
standalone installer is tricky, and currently several people are working 
on it to get it going.

There is for example a nightly build of trunk (possibly unstable) 
available here: http://www.norbit.de/67 with links for the python 
packages required as well.


Regards,

Carson

-- 
Carson J. Q. Farmer
ISSP Doctoral Fellow
National Centre for Geocomputation (NCG),
John Hume Building,
National University of Ireland, Maynooth,
Co. Kildare,
Ireland.
Phone: +353 (0) 1 708 6726
Fax:   +353 (0) 1 708 6456
Email: Carson.Farmer at gmail.com
Web:   http://www.carsonfarmer.com/
       http://www.ftools.ca/