[kepler-dev] Installer Choice: Macrovision aquires Zerog.com

Christopher Brooks cxh at eecs.berkeley.edu
Thu Jul 14 09:34:33 PDT 2005


I'm in the market for an installer other than ZeroG's InstallAnywhere.

Java applications that include native libraries.  Ideally it would
be open source, but not GPL'd.

James Yeh suggested: 
http://www.wise.com
http://www.advancedinstaller.com/

Does anyone have any other ideas?

I'm not committed to jumping ship, but it could be a good time to
consider the possibilities. 

I feel somewhat bad because I was probably one of the reasons that
Kepler is using ZeroG's product.

_Christopher


------- Forwarded Message
The Windows Installer we use is from ZeroG.com.

The Microsoft of installers is a different corporation, 
Installshield. 
I had tried using InstallShield multiplatform product for a few release
and decided that it was not very good.  My bugs from 2001 are at:
http://ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu/ptolemyII/ptII1.0/installshield.htm#bugs
I'm sure that the InstallShield product has improved since then,
but we ended up switching to ZeroG.

In addition, I've seen InstallShield hang while installing the Sun
JDK, the only solutions being to disconnect from the network, or 
wait 10 minutes for a timeout, or reinstall the OS.  Basically,
InstallShield's offerings don't meet my standards.

Apparently Macrovision acquired Installshield at some point in the
past.

Now, Macrovision has acquired Zerog.com!

Macrovision is a big player in the copy protection industry.  If I'm
not mistaken, they got their start with copy protection of VHS tapes.

Over the years, some of the statements from the Macrovision
corporation have rubbed me the wrong way.

For a biased selection of Macrovision info, see
http://slashdot.org/search.pl?query=macrovision 

I'd entertain switching installers.

Does anyone have a suggestion?

_Christopher
------- End of Forwarded Message



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