Re: Windows download link on gnu.org

[Alan Mead]

On 12/17/2015 5:16 AM, Harry Thijssen wrote:

I wonder if we'd have fewer Windows complaints if it weren't the first
platform to get new versions...  Of course, that also means that they're
first to get new fixes...

Partially I guess. There are several reasons.

First of all there is a large MSWindows PSPP user base. You can find the MSWindows build all over the net and it is copied to several privat servers, for example on universities networks. From sourceforge alone the 2015-11-16 version is now downloaded over 9400 times and counting. A large userbase means it is used in much different environments -> much issues are found.

And there are issues because MSWindows works different. So the developers have to work around the MSWindows behaviour. Some off these problems are from the start of PSPP.  Using a newer or older versions doesn't make a difference for that.

And indeed MSWindows users are the first who use new and improved features on a large scale. So they are the ones who find the new bugs too. That is a benefit and a drawback.

These are all good points.  But regarding John's comment about official releases vs. builds of more recent versions, the latest release is 0.8.5. Should we label the Windows downloads as "stable release" and "latest version (newest features, but possibly also bugs)" or something like that? I just looked at awardspace.com and there are two different versions of 0.8.5 so I assume 2015-09-10 contains a bug fix and is the recommended release that Windows users should use.

-Alan

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