I hate InstallAware


There! I said it. This post is non-constructive criticism towards the product, but when repeatedly it makes me waste my time, reduce my productivity, that's when I have a right on my own blog, on my own site to say I hate the technology. I have had it with InstallAware. And for those who bitch and complain about MSI, that's a load of crap! It takes me less time to install 5 products using MSI than it does to install or uninstall recent Delphi products.

This is probably one of the worst things CodeGear has ever done. Sorry.

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Comments: 

Andreas Hausladen 2007-08-31 08:33:31
You haven't seen the German and French locatization of the InstallWare Express IDE.
It looks like "Paying an employee to localize the application is too expensive. Google can do that for free."
Peter 2007-08-31 09:43:07
Me too. I say one word: InnoSetup!
Fast, snappy, State of the Art!
Steve Summers 2007-08-31 11:26:15
You said it. Delphi 2007 crashed one day in late June, and when it restarted, the debugger wouldn't work. After trying a few things, I ended up trying the classic uninstall/reinstall thing. What a mistake. Instead of fixing my problem, InstallAware spent its usual hour TRYING, but then failed just before the end, with some bizarre error code I couldn't find anywhere on the web. It took FOURTEEN HOURS of trying things and re-running the (horribly slow) installer, having it fail over and over and over again until I was ready to throw the whole thing off the roof, before I was able to get it running again.

I hope CodeGear is reading this. I can't see how any Microsoft product could possibly suck so much that it would cost me as much time as dealing with this POS has cost me. If they don't deal with these quality issues, my next project will be in Visual Studio C#. After well over 20 years of programming almost exclusively in Pascal, it's taking a lot to drive me away from it, but CodeGear is managing, by forcing crap like InstallAware on us.
C Johnson 2007-08-31 12:37:12
PHONE NICK HODGES AND TELL HIM!!!!

Don't let me be the only one to PERSONALLY express my angst. Let Nick know that you hate it, explain to him that no one is paying you when you are installing 2007. Let them know that their newest installer is personally costing you time and money and causing you to develop a hate for their product.

I won't post his ph# here, but if you call Borland, they can give you CodeGear's main ph# and the switchboard can direct you to Nick.

And remember, talking to people about the product IS part of Nick's job.

CALL HIM. Maybe if enough people do, they will understand that it just is NOT acceptable.

Oh, and if/when you get lame excuses, point out what is wrong with them. Frankly, I have been amazed at what CodeGear doesn't know, leading to some spectacularilly bad choices.
Hadi Hariri 2007-08-31 01:34:37
Thanks, although I think Nick is well aware of my feelings towards the installer. I've been quite verbal about it, both on my blog and in person. But today, after nearly 12 hours fighting with it, I've had enough. Tomorrow I'm going on holiday and I don't want to see another installer for a whole 5 days :)
DaveK 2007-08-31 08:16:36
This all sounds so familiar to me.

It really can be a nasty bit of software.
Nick Hodges 2007-09-01 01:22:00
What's wrong with InstallAware? We dont ship ANYTHING before its ready. Delphi 2007 is an amazing product and we receive tons of accolades from customers about it. CodeGear is in wonderful shape, EVERYTHING IS A-OK. We are hard at work on Highlander and it willl be uber-perfect too with .NET support.

As for the comment of going to C#. You must be a troll. Noone leaves Delphi for Visual Studio, it just does NOT happen. We are seeing very strong sales numbers, in fact I expect when Highladner is released that many people will leave Visual Studio to come to Delphi.
Rudy Velthuis 2007-09-01 12:19:21
I agree with everything Nick says (before, now and forever).
Nick, U Da Man! I love you - Seriously. Don't listen to these idiots. They are not L33T developers like you and me.
Folks, please post your concerns in the public CodeGear newsgroups. Otherwise I can't cancel them.
Hadi Hariri 2007-09-01 11:23:21
I know this is a general rant, but it's on my site, thus we know who posted it. It is open to comments, but sarcastic comments pretending to be someone you are not is quite lame. So please, refrain from posting under other people's name.


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