Please please make zip versions of the portable apps available. It shouldn't be too hard as the current "installer" is really just an obfuscated decompresser.
The reasons for wanting a zip version are:
1)Company firewall policies which ban the download of .exe files
2) People are wary about having to run an "installer" when all they want is a non-installed traceless portable version of the product (I know, I know, but the terminology is important). Some people just want to unzip and go.
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Having a firewall filter .exe files might definitely justify this. But a firewall policy that prohibits .exe files but permits .exe files if they are inside .zip files is pretty lame. Certainly a signed .exe file is less likely to be harmful than a .zip full of stuff. But I realize most people don't have much to say about what some administrator or director decided was a good firewall policy.
While you are waiting for the request to be considered, you can get Universal Extractor, which can extract from the installer. Download at home, rename the files to .zip, carry them to work, and go from there. Or download and install at home, zip up the resulting directory tree, and take it to work.
Calling the PAF format an obfuscated decompressor is a bit harsh. It's not obfuscated at all.
It does take care of a number of housekeeping chores that make it more acceptable to people who just want to use it (in other words, who want to unzip and go). It takes care of EULAs, which are a precondition of installing some programs. (Yes, that might not fit with the "unzip and go" philosophy, but there you go.)
MC
Thanks for the reply.
Yes, I know banning the download of .exe files while allowing .zip files to go by uninspected is a bit retarded, but it's been the IT policy at my last two (very large scale) companies.
I've already been doing something similar to your suggestions, downloading the .paf.exe files at home, using 7-zip to decompress it and then sorting out all the detritus that remains. But it would be oh so much simpler if I could just unzip and go.
EULAs? I say blah to EULAs.
its not only Eulas.
It deletes unnecessary files, automatically finds your installation and can be signed more easily. We had that discussion a while back and for some tasks, the zip installers just weren't good enough.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
If you just run the installer, you get a nice clean directory tree. No registry entries, no detritus, no add/remove entry.
MC
As has been discussed numerous times, we won't be providing Zips for the following reasons:
Now, I understand the issue with the corporate firewalls... many oddly disallow EXEs but allow ZIPs (which is kinda dumb), so, at some point, we may zip up the exe installers for people to be able to get around that. We may not be able to do that with the Mozilla apps, though.
The issue with people being wary is going away as users learn more. The funny thing is that most of the zipped so-called portable software out there leaves things behind. Most advanced users have learned this. Most less-experienced users don't care. It's just some in the middle (that know just enough to be dangerous) that need to get it.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
EULAs - Many apps require EULAs to be shown on installation. All the Mozilla apps fall into this category. This is especially true of some of the upcoming freeware and commercial releases.
Have you even checked the code for the launchers that use EULAs recently? The code is still there to show a EULA if it hasn't been shown already.
Licensing - The license we have with Mozilla requires an installer (which also shows the EULA) on Firefox, Thunderbird and Sunbird. Anyone distributing a zipped version of those apps is actually doing so illegally.
However, as the EULA is still shown without the installer, is that not fine?
Self Contained - The installer doesn't require any outside files or utilities. This isn't as big an issue on Windows XP and above, but Windows 2000 and below all lack a Zip handler built in. Plus, many less-experienced users don't even know how to use Zip files.
Self. Extracting. Zips.
Digital Signatures - The installers are digitally signed to ensure that they haven't been tampered with. This is important to many users.
I'm sure that zips can be signed too.
I'd like to point out that these are just notes.
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
The Mozilla license requires that the EULA is shown on installation. Just on first run is insufficient. Several freeware and commercial apps are similar. The reason it's also shown on first run is for situations where an app is allowed to be pre-installed on a flash drive and the EULA is then show to the end user on first run. So, that covers EULA and Licensing.
Self extracting zips have the same issue... he's asking for a zip, not an exe. And a self extracting zip is still an exe, so it can't get through firewalls that just block exes and let zips through. So, there's really no advantage to a self extracting zip at all. The only thing people have occasionally said is that you can use an unzip program on a self extracting zip. You can do the same thing on the installers with a program like 7-Zip Portable. You just open it up and browse to the the right directory if you want to see what's getting installed (except for GIMP which has two pieces). Of course, installing an app that way isn't supported so you'd be entirely on your own.
As for digitally signing self extractors... yes, you can. But since there's no advantage to a self extractor over the portable installer, it's kinda moot.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
How is FireFox FOSS then ?
One of the key points of FOSS is exactly that :
The right to modify and redistribute the application.
The source-code is released under the GPL .. how is it that Mozilla
can take the sourcecode,compile it and release it under another,more restrictive
license ? This is not copy-left, it's copy-right .
Personally I don't care if the app is called "Mozilla FireFox" or whatever ..
The code is freely distributed, but the logos are not open source. That is why. And Mozilla Firefox is trademarked, so you need to change the name. You can only use the logos if you get permission from Mozilla.
Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
FOSS = Free Open Source Software. Mozilla Firefox allows full use of it's code, however the company name (Mozilla), the application name (Firefox), and the logos are trademarked. You can do ANYTHING you want with the Mozilla sources, but you have to remove the trademarked names and logos. It's still FOSS.
And the Mozilla code is not GPL, it is MPL, which is a custom license written by Mozilla.
YOU may not care if we call it Firefox or WaterCow or whatever else we can come up with. But that is just YOUR opinion, not a fact of life, or the way the world thinks. Most users won't download a product that they don't recognize, even if it's just a renamed copy of some other well known application.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Another example is Redhat and CentOS. CentOS can reuse all the Redhat source rpms, but they have to go thru and remove all references to Redhat and it's logo THEN they can re-publish the files as a separate free OS. This is why CentOS is always lagged behind RH as far as updates goes.
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Help control the rugrat population -- have yourself spayed or neutered!
then shouldn't the line, on https://portableapps.com/about/what_is_a_portable_app page:
No Additional Software - Just download the portable app, extract it and go
be:
No Additional Software - Just download the portable app, install it and go
I don't see what the problem is. Download them at home and install them to portable media or burn to CD then transfer to your desktop @ work.
Our mail servers are smart enough to scan ALL attached filetypes as if they were zip files (even if they've been renamed) and then remove the contents of the zip file no matter what's in them. Of course, we can send .7z files all day as attachments since the mail server's AV scanner can't handle LZMA compression.
Besides, enabling you to break network user agreements isn't what this site is about, it's about enabling you to use applications in a convenient manner and transport these apps (and their settings) from place to place.
Cancer Survivors -- Remember the fight, celebrate the victory!
Help control the rugrat population -- have yourself spayed or neutered!
Can you download some-file.exe and save it as some-file.zip, then rename it to some-file.exe?
Vintage!
As I was reading through this thread, I had a feeling someone was going to ask this.
When you download a file and save it as something else, your computer does exactly that, in that order. The file is downloaded into a temp directory as the original filename and extension. When the download is complete, your computer moves and renames the file.
If you could trick firewalls in that manner, there wouldn't be much of a point to having a firewall.
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They are not long for the world.
No one leaves; line up for inevitable wipeout.
All you've done - now it's what you deserve.
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I just don't know how broken the guy's firewall design is. And besides, the firewall's already broken if it's using a simple filename filter.
Vintage!
You could download to a machine at home, rename, then download to your work machine. I don't like leaving things running at home however ... security, 'green' and more practical considerations.
If you have any webspace, shared or dedicated, you can use that as a staging server. You don't need terminal access, a package like Fileman:http://www.gossamer-threads.com/scripts/fileman/
will suffice.
Or if you know PHP or Perl it would be trivial to write a little script that receives a target url, downloads it, renames it, and links it for final download... There are even free hosting packages out there where you could place such a script.
while i having a filter for exes and not for zips is not smart, but rather than finding ways to get around your company's firewall, just download it at home and install it there
Please search before posting. ~Thanks