grosskop
24th August 2001 10:01 UTC

has nsis a multiplatform future?
I took notice of NSIS because SUN uses it for the install of his WebStart technology. So I was curious whether it could handle multiplatform installs. My disappointment was big when I realized, that it doesn't since it seems a great project to me.
But on Nullsoft's site they announce a multiplatform version of WinAmp. One could deduce that NSIS should be able to handle multiplatform installs then. Does anybody know whether there is some activity in this direction?
Kay

Koen van de Sande
24th August 2001 20:13 UTC

I don't think so. NSIS is aimed at Windows platforms at the moment, and I'm not sure how hard it would be to target multiple platforms.
I think it would require an enormous investment to make it Unix/Linux compatible. I think there is no such activity at the moment, but you'd have to ask justin@nullsoft.com , but he's probably really busy on Winamp3 itself instead of NSIS.
Still, you could use NSIS on Windows platforms and something else on *nix.

DuaneJeffers
25th August 2001 01:34 UTC

Grosskop: The Sun Microsystems' Java Web Start is only for the Win32 platform. And the NSIS installer will NOT be for the Winamp for Mac. It uses the hqx packager.

Koen van de Sande: Justin doesn't work on Winamp3 (or at least the main code). He works on the plug-ins that comes with the Winamp Distro. Also, NSIS doesn't work for any *nix

-DJ

pjw62
25th August 2001 14:46 UTC

I suppose the only NSIS for Linux, at least, would have to be a RPM frontend. If anyone wanted to get started on such a port, depending on how much school work I have, I may be able to help.

Peter.

DuaneJeffers
25th August 2001 21:11 UTC

That would be awesome, I'm working on creating my own distro. of Linux called DJLiunx. Read more about it here: http://64.12.38.241/showthread.php?threadid=58033

-DJ

grosskop
28th August 2001 14:07 UTC

Thanks people. I am desperately looking for an alternative to InstallShield and InstallAnywhere, since they are not open source. I had the hope that ... maybe nsis ...could ...
Some other suggestion for me?:(

DuaneJeffers
29th August 2001 00:33 UTC

Nope, NSIS is it, stick with it.

-DJ

prodangle
28th October 2001 01:56 UTC

Sorry to ressurect this thread - I was going to make a post about a Linux NSIS, but I thought I'd search the place first, and ended up digging out this.

In my opinion, the one thing that is stopping Linux from becoming mainstream is the difficulty facing new users who try to install programs. With Windows it is a piece of cake, just double click on the exe and press Next a few times. With Linux, most new users collapse and die at the thought of having to compile source to get a program working. RPM's aren't much better. OK, so they are far simpler to use than GCC, but it's still a long way from how Windows users are used to setting up applications.

If it were possible to get an NSIS type thing happening in Linux, It would definately make every new Linux user a million times more confident when installing software, and could even be the one thing that catapults Linux into the mainstream.
One major problem is that whenever you download a new app for Linux, you then have to go and pick up the latest versions of 47 billion differant sets of libraries in order to get it to work. I don't know how a Linux NSIS could solve this problem, short of spitting out a list of URLs when the installer fails, but even then it would be a far more pleasant experience than the one recieved when using rpms. The other main problem I can see is not everyone using the same desktop. If the Linux NSIS was aimed towards newbie users, then support for KDE and Gnome would probably be enough. Anyone using anything else would be able to do the shortcut icon stuff on their own.
I must point out that I'm no expert on Linux, and I know even less about C, (I'm one of the folks a Linux NSIS would help out :) )so forgive me if I'm talking crap with some of the above points. I have no real idea about how feasable making a Linux NSIS would actually be, but it would definately be of great value to every fresh Windows convert

DuaneJeffers
28th October 2001 06:14 UTC

An NSIS Linux idea is a good one. Yes, there are alot of things that would stop it, including Linux's Distro's and how many versions there are. It is estimated that a new Linux Distro Update is released every 30 days and the upgrading would be a bitch. I think that is the reason why Distribution makers have many version including Workstation, Server, File Server, etc.... Personally I would love to see this come out as a multi-distro, multi-version, multi-everything installer. But that wouldn't come about until either ALL distribution makers come out with a common installer platform or an Common NSIS core that is C/C++ based. Right now the former seems much more possible. Once a C++ based NSIS core is established (for Linux, not Win32), then an developer can switch between the OSes he/she wants it to run on and then compile it. I wouldn't be surprised if this could be introduced in Version 2 (My idea, New version, New core ... hmmm this sounds like Winamp3...). It would be nice to go into many platforms. But we need to work out a basis for NSIS to work on and then we can work on many platforms. Personally, I would love to see a Mac-based NSIS installer first before any Linux distro. But I see your point.

But for right now, we can only dream.
-Duane

justin
28th October 2001 19:08 UTC

I'm thinking about making NSIS/OSX. Linux isn't a stable platform to release binaries for, IMO, so the tar xvzf file.tar.gz ; ./configure ; make ; make install will prevail.

Now OS X, on the other hand.

If development of NSIS/OSX happens, it will likely be a fork that is maintained seperately, since there will be big fundamental differences.

-Justin

DuaneJeffers
28th October 2001 19:22 UTC

What about Mac OS 9.1/9.2??? My Computer classes still run these and it would be nice to have an installer for that.

Can I also ask, If NSIS is ported to other OSes, could I get the source to release on NSIS Project House??? Your support of the project house would be awesome.

Thanks,
-Duane

shouman
27th June 2006 13:00 UTC

NSIS should be multi platform.;)

onad
27th June 2006 13:13 UTC

OSX has a very nice installer option BUILD IN the OS, just read the Apple Devdocs of how to make an installer pkg. No real need for NSIS there I think.

For Linux I agree, should be more uniform for non experienced users, but maybe there is something like that, I do not know.

If you create a Linux application you could opt to glue all dependancies to you application, then installing is just a matter of copying.