This is one of my pet peeves. One of the problems with the acceptance of Linux is that it is not 'grandmother ready'. Implementations like Ubuntu have made it much better by making installation simple and having a standard way of installing software.

Except....

no one seems to be going along with this. Neither Google (Google Earth), nor Adobe (Flash) use the standard Debian .deb package for installing their software. It always comes down to complicated command line commands. No one would ever think of offering software to a Windows or Mac user like this. But the assumption is always "Linux users are geeks. They'll figure it out." And grandmothers are left in the dust.

So I guess Boinc has good company, when it only offers a .sh package for Linux (http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php). Want to know how to install it on Ubuntu? Sorry, no instructions on this page. You can get creative and click on "Older Linux versions" and eventually find some cryptic instructions on what to do with this very non-standard-for-Ubuntu .sh file.

You know, it is not all that difficult to create a .deb package.

I'm just saying....

This is one of my pet peeves. One of the problems with the acceptance of Linux is that it is not 'grandmother ready'. Implementations like Ubuntu have made it much better by making installation simple and having a standard way of installing software.

Except....

no one seems to be going along with this. Neither Google (Google Earth), nor Adobe (Flash) use the standard Debian .deb package for installing their software. It always comes down to complicated command line commands. [...]

So I guess Boinc has good company, when it only offers a .sh package for Linux (http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php).

What are you talking about? BOINC is in the official Ubuntu package repository.

http://packages.ubuntu.com/boinc-client

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BOINC is in the official Ubuntu repository, yes.

But the software and the BOINC website tells me that there is a new version, and that I should use this new version. That lead me to the .sh file and no .deb file in sight, which leads to my grumbling.

The Linux .sh file is on the download page. The 'Installing on Linux' page is not mentioned on this page, so thanks for this information.

But the software and the BOINC website tells me that there is a new version, and that I should use this new version.

That is the real problem. BOINC software should never give update notifications if it's installed using a real package manager. Update notification and installation is the package manager's job.

As for the website, that's irrelevant. It's easy to find lots of software where Ubuntu repositories have version X, but the program's website says a new version Y is out, and the only way to get it is compiling from source (or waiting for the Ubuntu package maintainers to make a new one). So you could say BOINC is good compared to others...

Don't compare to Google Earth or Flash; that's proprietary software and will always do things differently from software with source code available.

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Yah, maybe I just jumped the gun. As long as the older version of BOINC works I have no complaints.

Yah, maybe I just jumped the gun. As long as the older version of BOINC works I have no complaints.

If you want a newer version, you should ask / encourage / help Ubuntu maintainers to make a new updated package :)

By the way, what version of Ubuntu do you have?

Gutsy has BOINC 5.10.8
Hardy has BOINC 5.10.45
Intrepid (latest released Ubuntu version) has BOINC 6.2.12
Jaunty (still beta, will be out next year) has BOINC 6.2.14

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I have 64 bit Ubuntu Intrepid, which has 6.2.12

I'm very new to Linux and Ubuntu, so I guess I don't understand. Certainly Windows users don't have to rely on Windows maintainers to install 6.4.5. They just click on the link and it installs. Ubuntu users have to wait a year or more before the latest version gets to the point of 'click-to-install'.

Maybe you guys just need a Ubuntu volunteer (in addition to the Fedora volunteer) to create and put a .deb file on the BOINC download page.

Hey, maybe in a few years I'll know enough to help out.

I have 64 bit Ubuntu Intrepid, which has 6.2.12

Good for you since 6.4 sucks.

I'm very new to Linux and Ubuntu, so I guess I don't understand. Certainly Windows users don't have to rely on Windows maintainers to install 6.4.5. They just click on the link and it installs.

Yep and that's one of the many reasons why Windows users get so much more infected than Linux users. Linux users rely on their distro to provide software, Windows users go and get software from lots of different websites.

Ubuntu users have to wait a year or more before the latest version gets to the point of 'click-to-install'.

Complain to Ubuntu that they update their packages too slow. Hey, Debian stable is worse.

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