On 23 May 2003, at 12:19, Sven Neumann wrote:
> Tor Lillqvist <tml@xxxxxx> writes:
>
> > Although I assume the below message is written tongue-in-cheek, I
> > guess it might be a good idea to put somewhere in a prominent place
> > on www.gimp.org a pointer for "casual Windows users" to follow, to
> > Jernej Simoncic'c installer page.
>
> Does that mean that Jernej Simoncic is now shipping the "official"
> GIMP for Win32 packages? It would be nice if this Jernej would
> subscribe to this list then, introduce himself and provide us a way to
> contact him. It would also be nice if he could get a Bugzilla account.
I think these (implied) things have been discussed here before.
Unlike Linux users, Windows users are not accustomed to having
separate source and binary packages. WGO can be all high and mighty
and disdain linking to distributors of binary packages (such as
Jernej Simoncic), but the reality may well be that most of our users
get binary packages (is there any data available on this?).
This may be a thing that WGO needs to address, by offering links to
certain builds (perhaps with a warning that we do not necessarily
sanction these builds, merely that we offer the links in the hope
that our visitors find them useful).
Currently, the path for a Windows user to follow is
-> Activate menu link 'Download' (simple enough)
-> Activate 'GIMP for Windows' link (still simple enough)
>From there it gets confusing I guess (it's where I tend to get
confused anyhow). TML's Download link is clear enough, but perhaps on
the previous page it should have been made more explicit that this is
basically a new site, and that you enter on its GIMP home page, which
is not its download page.
-> Activate menu link 'Download'
-> Activate installer link
-> Activate the links that will start the downloads
That's five clicks, which is more or less three clicks too much (or
four) for somebody who just wanted to download the program.
The simplest thing to do would be to have two links, one that links
to Jernej's pages ('download unofficial installer') and one that
links to TML's pages ('development of Windows build').
What also may be a 'problem', is that the www.gimp.org/win32/ address
is an official WGO address. That would suggest to those activating
that link that they stay on the site. Perhaps it should be
explicitely mentioned that this is an external, self-contained web
site.
--
branko collin
collin@xxxxxxxxx
