Re: [msysGit] [FYI][PATCH] Customizing the WinGit installer

From: Avery Pennarun <apenwarr@gmail.com>
Date: Oct 7, 2008, 02:40 UTC
Message-ID: <32541b130810061940y4864c420h1a6504b843d4e746@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20081007015942.GV21650@dpotapov.dyndns.org>

On Mon, Oct 6, 2008 at 9:59 PM, Dmitry Potapov <dpotapov@gmail.com> wrote:

Show 9 quoted lines

> On Mon, Oct 06, 2008 at 11:11:25PM +0300, Heikki Orsila wrote:
>>
>> I disagree VIOLENTLY with you. I've been utterly struck with this
>> Windows crap here.. I spent a day installing stupid trivial software
>> and answering pointless EULAs. I REALLY REALLY hate extra questions..
>
> Git installer should NOT ask you whether you agree with the license,
> but it merely shows you the license. (At least, it is what was decided
> half a year ago).

FWIW, the only reason *installers* ever show licenses is because they want to give you *additional* restrictions on top of normal copyright, and making you "click through" the license before using the application might (or might not) make those restrictions more legally enforceable than simply including that license along with the program.

Installers don't show you the license to increase visibility; they do it for legal reasons.

The most visible place to put a license is in either a splash screen or a Help|About dialog. If I'm using a program and I want to know the license, that's where I look.

This whole discussion is silly because end users, who are the ones we claim to be worried about, will not be the ones running the installer anyway at a large company. It'll be the IT department guy, who already knows the license and will have to run the installer 500 times. And if it's not a large company, individuals will see the license when they go to download the software.

Have fun,

Avery