Looking for installer GUI (possibly InstallShield-like.)

[Toralf Lund <toralf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm looking for a way to simplify the distribution and installation of 
some software for Red Hat Linux that my company is going to publish on 
the web. It is currently packaged as several rpms, some of which contain 
applications, some base libs etc. needed by the apps. I definitely want 
to use the standard package format, i.e. rpm, and think the package 
organisation is about right. However, we feel that direct download and 
installation using the standard tools will be too complex for many 
people, and of course, our marketing department want the users to be 
presented with a nice installer GUI displaying information about the 
company etc.

So I'm looking for software that would allow the user to complete the 
download and installation in fewer steps and using the GUI only - 
possibly by bundling the rpms and an installer front-end in one file. 
The installer must be able to install, upgrade or skip each package 
based on the current state of the system. Some kind of requirements 
handling would also be useful; there may be packages that we don't want 
to install unless they satisfy dependencies in others. 

I've been looking at InstallShield Multiplatform and InstallAnywhere, but:

  1. They have a lot of functionality I don't need as I'm not
     interested in the build support or direct file install
     functionality; I prefer to start with existing rpms.
  2. They seem unnecessarily complex and too "heavy" in general (who
     said *opensource* software was overconfigurable???)
  3. I'm not sure their rpm interaction work as well as I'd like.
  4. I would of course prefer freeware to commercial apps (but if
     anyone knows of an alternative that is commercial, I'd still be
     interested in hearing about it.)

Are there any other options?

Note that I've been using redhat-install-packages, and like it a lot, 
but I think even using that will be too complex in this case. (Since 
there is no support for "bundled" rpms or selective installation of 
packages, as far as I know.)

- Toralf



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