suggestion/rant re: install method

["Urdaneta, Alfonso E (N-Summitt Technologies)" <alfonso.e.urdaneta@lmco.com>]

I just tried to download and install cygwin - and I have to say the install
is highly frustrating.

While I understand the motivation for the granular installer, I think that
you should still provide the option of a monolithic download.  Unfortunatly
many of the "mirrors" that I had to chose from only mirrored a subset of the
modules that I needed to download for my full install.

I don't know how many times I had to deal with dialogs telling me "download
failed" and then choose a different mirror only to be told "the server has
an older version of setup.ini than the one you were using, continue ?",
forcing me to go through the installer over and over and over till finally I
now have a cygwin install that is about 80% functional, and I have to go
back over it and find all the pieces that didn't come down.

One thing that you guys may not have considered is that the current
"internet-only" method is unsuitable for classified environments.  I have
worked (and I'm sure I'm not the only one) in a "secure" environment which
does not allow a live connection to the internet.  In that sort of
environment we are allowed to stick CDs into the machine to install
software, but downloading is expressly prohibited.  

By refusing to provide a "monolithic install" option that users such as
myself can download and burn to CD to be used on non-networked machines, you
have essentially made cygwin a non-option for us.  

And please, any comments such "just plug it in for the download - a firewall
is more than adequate protection" are worthless - those of use that do
government work deal with beaurocrats, not reasonable technically compentent
human beings.  

Just an example - at my last government job I was not allowed to bring a
CD-RW into the lab even though all the machines had _only_ CDROM drives. (
yes, you read that correctly, read only drives NOT a writeable ones ).

I'm also concerned about the wasted bandwith and the delays induced by
downloading.  

I have a stack of CDs that I have burned with the tools that I normally
download such as gcc, xemacs, jdk, etc.  I use these whenever I setup a new
machine.  It seems that downloading 200-300M worth of stuff per machine is
ludicrous - especially if you are going to configure 20-50 developer
workstations, which I have had to do.  Seems like an excessive drain on your
mirror sites, and the internet in general.

Alfonso.


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