installing wxPython on Linux and Windows

[Diez B. Roggisch]

> Same task on Win2k: download wxPython-setup.exe, double-click, done.
> Took me approx. 1 minute. This strikes me. Why are some tasks so hard
> on Linux and so easy on Windows? After all wxPython/Win and wxPython/Lin
> are made by the same developers. My guess: the software deployment
> infrastructure on Linux needs to be improved.

On debian, it 

apt-get install wxPython2.5.3

So it clearly depends on you distribution. That this is unfortunate is of
course true...

I think there are several reasons for windows having easier installation:

 - on unix, progams usually are linked to libraries available on the
machine, so missing dependencies make the installation fail. On windows,
the installer installs all the dependencies - and possibly overwrites
system dlls (CorelDraw 7 killed Exchange by that, back in 1998)

 - there is more commercially available installers for windows - maybe
because free software developers on UNIXes are less keen to pay for such
tools, or the admins of such systems can be trusted to be more apt dealing
with configure and the like.

 - the variety of hardware _and_ software unix systems run on is much
larger, so compiling is the only way to go if you don't want to support a
plethorea of binaries (and have hardware available for these). On windows,
you can compile at home and install it on the big iron at work.

All the points are of course only an explanation, no excuse - there _could_
be better installers. As I showed, in  parts that's already available, e.g.
for debian which handles dependencies usually much better and is easier to
use for online updates. I think we have to wait until consistent dependency
checking and so on are established - maybe LSB helps us there.



-- 
Regards,

Diez B. Roggisch