At first glance, it sounds like a promising idea, but in hindsight, I am not sure it is.
Back about 2 years ago, I found PortableApps.com almost by accident as I was looking for an easier way to carry my mail around. I decided to download the whole suite. Downloading was easy, but installing the software on my 4-Mb USB key was a rather lengthy process. And then I discover in the following days that I have to download again everything separately to get the updated versions.
So the massive download is a good idea, but only if all the components are up to date. And I don't think it's realistic or even remotely possible to expect all the bundled-up applications to always be up to date, as there are a few developers and especially considering that some applications are updated very frequently (think Firefox).
The best we might expect would be a PortableApps.com platform-only download. Once installed, it would show a ReadMe.html file that would, in effect, direct the new user to a page like https://portableapps.com/apps. Or maybe there could be one or two pages with recommended sets of applications. These would be good starting points for the newbie; and because these pages would only have links to the actual downloading pages, it means that people would always download the latest applications in the language of their choice.
The updater will actually remove the need for a suite at all, I think.
There will be an option to get more apps/update apps under Options. Opening it will give a list of all the official apps and their description. Check the ones you want and they get automagically downloaded and installed. Build your own suite. Always up to date. And it will be able to magically update the apps in the same way. So maybe the first of every month you run it and get updated, or something like that.
Not going to happen, but once the updater gets finished it will perform basically the same function.
Quamquam omniam nescio, nec nihil scio.
At first glance, it sounds like a promising idea, but in hindsight, I am not sure it is.
Back about 2 years ago, I found PortableApps.com almost by accident as I was looking for an easier way to carry my mail around. I decided to download the whole suite. Downloading was easy, but installing the software on my 4-Mb USB key was a rather lengthy process. And then I discover in the following days that I have to download again everything separately to get the updated versions.
So the massive download is a good idea, but only if all the components are up to date. And I don't think it's realistic or even remotely possible to expect all the bundled-up applications to always be up to date, as there are a few developers and especially considering that some applications are updated very frequently (think Firefox).
The best we might expect would be a PortableApps.com platform-only download. Once installed, it would show a ReadMe.html file that would, in effect, direct the new user to a page like https://portableapps.com/apps. Or maybe there could be one or two pages with recommended sets of applications. These would be good starting points for the newbie; and because these pages would only have links to the actual downloading pages, it means that people would always download the latest applications in the language of their choice.
Michel Gagnon
Montréal (Québec, Canada)
The updater will actually remove the need for a suite at all, I think.
There will be an option to get more apps/update apps under Options. Opening it will give a list of all the official apps and their description. Check the ones you want and they get automagically downloaded and installed. Build your own suite. Always up to date. And it will be able to magically update the apps in the same way. So maybe the first of every month you run it and get updated, or something like that.