[Lazarus] Installing lazarus on Windows, horror story goes on

[Henry Vermaak]

2010/7/29 Juha Manninen <juha.manninen62 at gmail.com>:
> Ok,
> we had a Skype phone+chat session with my friend again trying to install
> Lazarus, this time on a Windows XP laptop. I thought it must be an easy task
> and we are done quickly. I was wrong again!
>
> He managed to install Lazarus by himself. So yes, it is easy to install but
> read on...  First he made a directory for my program under C:\. Then he
> opened the project with Lazarus. Everything looked good. Then he clicked
> "Run" button --> "cannot write to directory lib" ... or something.
> Apparently he did't have enough rights for the folder. But now, why was he
> able to create the folder through "My Computer" if he has no rights for it?
> I just don't know Windows enough to understand it.
>
> Then he made an empty test project and saved it under the user's default
> directory and tried to run it. There was an error about executing ppc or
> something. Then we both were so pissed off that we closed the Skype session.
> F**k!
>
> Before that we were fighting with zip packages. The Windows machine didn't
> have a zip program installed. I made a mistake first and recommended Peazip
> "because it is made with Lazarus". My friend installed it but the UI is so
> weird that he couldn't use it. Finally he installed a decent archiver, jzip,
> and could extract my source package.
>
> Why this Lazarus must be such a weirdo-land? The only known program made
> with Lazarus, excluding Lazarus itself, is Peazip and it is so weird that a
> "normal" person can't use it.
> The installation of FPC + Lazarus fails on 2 major platforms: Windows and
> OSX (again for a "normal" person). I would say a mainstream Linux distro is
> the only place where is actually works "for sure" (after one manages to
> install the distro I mean).
>
> Now I have read many comments that Lazarus Windows installer is a really
> easy one-click system. I admit that the installation is easy but the result
> was a broken system so it doesn't help much.
> How do you people explain this episode with the "idiot proof" Windows
> installer? Do you think I made up the story. No, it really happened to a
> real person, on a real Windows XP laptop and I really tried to help him
> through a Skype session.
> And yes, he has been able to install other SW when he wanted.
>
> His feeling is of course "why do you give me this crappy SW. Is it some kind
> of joke?". I would have the same feeling if someone handed me a program I
> can't even install. I can myself be very irritated sometimes when a system
> doesn't work while it should.
>
> I think I must learn GUI programming with Java and port the code. Java is
> already installed on those machines and runs for sure.
> The other choise is to boot Windows XP on my mini-laptop, install Lazarus
> there and build the program, then send the binary to my friend. He lives 250
> km away and I don't drive there now.
>
> Write once, compile everywhere. Right yeah...

Yawn.  Nobody will help you if you don't give specific
errors/screenshots.  Also, take your peazip complaints somewhere else.

If you can't even manage to install it, how will you be able to
program useful software?