What type of apps at portableapps.com?

Message

linuxx · #16 Post by **linuxx** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 4:01 pm

PAF can also lock users into a single-source upgrade path. When developers release a new version, I don’t want to wait (or beg) for someone to PAF it.

m^(2) · #17 Post by **m^(2)** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 11:03 pm

linuxx wrote:PAF can also lock users into a single-source upgrade path. When developers release a new version, I don’t want to wait (or beg) for someone to PAF it.

So install it, copy files and uninstall. That's not a problem.

linuxx · #18 Post by **linuxx** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 4:41 am

m^(2) wrote:
linuxx wrote:PAF can also lock users into a single-source upgrade path. When developers release a new version, I don’t want to wait (or beg) for someone to PAF it.
So install it, copy files and uninstall. That's not a problem.

Your solution would certainly reduce forum traffic..

http://portableapps.com/node/15527#comment-96502
http://portableapps.com/node/14435#comment-89574
http://portableapps.com/node/9356#comment-50600

mynokia · #19 Post by **mynokia** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 10:54 am

linuxx wrote:PAF can also lock users into a single-source upgrade path. When developers release a new version, I don’t want to wait (or beg) for someone to PAF it.

I have the same opinion for this. I often have to wait for new portable version from them, and feel uncomfortable, I feel that I'm depending on them

.

Like MiDoJo, I just use few apps from PA.com like Firefox and Pidgin. I think they're good. But I wonder about what m^2 said, they portabilize some apps which are already portable like SumatraPDF. I don't know what for.

Thank all of you, especially m^2, linuxx and MiDoJo

m^(2) · #20 Post by **m^(2)** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 11:38 am

mynokia wrote: But I wonder about what m^2 said, they portabilize some apps which are already portable like SumatraPDF. I don't know what for.

Some time ago I made a quick list of portable apps that they packed. It may not be complete because I tested only the programs that I thought to have the biggest chance of being portable by themselves (=smaller ones+these I knew to be portable). And it was like month ago. And these are only released programs, I skipped betas entirely - nowadays they pack portable software much more often then before.
These were:

Sumatra PDF
WinMD5Sum
DosBox
JKDefrag
KeePass
LBreakout2
Mines Perfect
PDFTK Builder
PNotes
Magnifying Glass
MPLayer

This list also misses things like miranda - it's not portable up to their definition because it leaves 1 registry key. Whoa, great reason to waste ~0.5s at each start to watch PA.com splash screen.

What for? You think that JTH is such a good guy, huh?
OK, I thought about it some more and I missed one reason. They have a lot of very young (10-16 y.o.) forum members that try to be useful (or to be noticed

) . They usually lack skills to do something useful though...
Maybe others will tell what are their views.

ashghost · #21 Post by **ashghost** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 12:40 pm

[quote="m^(2)"]
Some time ago I made a quick list of portable apps that they packed.

I made a list in this thread back in April, and they keep adding more since then (and I've added some that m^(2) listed above but I hadn't cared about). It amounts to nearly half of their official offerings:

Notepad++
XAMPP
WinSCP
PDFTK Builder
Sumatra PDF
KeePass
PeaZip
winMD5Sum
WinDirStat
VLC
InfraRecorder
Virtual Magnifying Glass
DOSBox
BonkEnc
MirandaIM
Pidgin
Filezilla
PokerTH
MPlayer
Stellarium
WinDirStat
LBreakout2
Mines Perfect
Magnifying Glass
PNotes
PDFTK Builder

I wouldn't count their JKDefrag front end as a portable version of something that is already portable, since it's one of 2 third party GUIs for a CLI program.

m^(2) · #22 Post by **m^(2)** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 12:57 pm

ashghost wrote:
m^(2) wrote: Some time ago I made a quick list of portable apps that they packed.

I made a list in this thread back in April, and they keep adding more since then (and I've added some that m^(2) listed above but I hadn't cared about). It amounts to nearly half of their official offerings:

XAMPP
WinSCP
PDFTK Builder
Sumatra PDF
KeePass
PeaZip
winMD5Sum
WinDirStat
VLC
InfraRecorder
Virtual Magnifying Glass
DOSBox
BonkEnc
MirandaIM
Pidgin
Filezilla
PokerTH
MPlayer
Stellarium
WinDirStat
LBreakout2
Mines Perfect
Magnifying Glass
PNotes
PDFTK Builder
Up to their definition, at least Miranda and Notepad++ are not portable.
I guess that you refer to the most common definition here that doesn't require stealthiness. While it gives them some excuse, for me stealthiness is definitely not worth a launcher, especially PAF one.

ashghost wrote:I wouldn't count their JKDefrag front end as a portable version of something that is already portable, since it's one of 2 third party GUIs for a CLI program.

One of their members created a fully portable GUI.
Then he created a launcher for this GUI. Launcher and PAF are useless here, so I think this is a good example.

mynokia · #23 Post by **mynokia** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 2:49 am

m^(2) wrote: What for? You think that JTH is such a good guy, huh?

I think you misunderstand me m^2, i said "what for" for JTH, not for you, it can be understand "what JTH portabilize already-portable-apps for"?

Thanks m^2 & ashghost for a good list. I think you are not agree with each other at the word "portable". One accept it portable, but one doesn't. It's not very important here, but also good!

@m^2: can you explain the stealthiness of a portable app? I don't know what it means, or my dictionary is really bad

m^(2) · #24 Post by **m^(2)** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 3:27 am

mynokia wrote:
m^(2) wrote: What for? You think that JTH is such a good guy, huh?
I think you misunderstand me m^2, i said "what for" for JTH, not for you, it can be understand "what JTH portabilize already-portable-apps for"?

I got it right. I believe that the JTH's main reason for pseudoportabilization is self promotion and I wrote it before. Then you asked "what for?" so I assumed that you think he's got other reasons.

mynokia wrote:Thanks m^2 & ashghost for a good list. I think you are not agree with each other at the word "portable". One accept it portable, but one doesn't. It's not very important here, but also good!

@m^2: can you explain the stealthiness of a portable app? I don't know what it means, or my dictionary is really bad

There is no commonly accepted definition of portable software.
You can read PA.com one here.
PF.com doesn't have official one, but the most commonly accepted (and applied when adding entries to the database) is:
-Works when moved with USB device to another computer, even if drive letter changes
-Keeps all important settings by itself. Things like MRU lists, last window position etc. are not important.
-Does not depend on any particular software installed, i.e. Java / .NET

Clean / Stealth means that when run on another machine it doesn't leave own files / registry entries.

To sum up: PA.com definition is a bit more than pf.com+clean.
I.e. Miranda and N++ w/out launchers are portable here, but aren't there, because they aren't clean.

BTW, I didn't mention my definition as there's no such thing. I only use terms more/less/enough/fully portable, but enough doesn't have strict definition and varies between apps (depending mostly on how portable are similar programs).

mynokia · #25 Post by **mynokia** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 5:40 am

Maybe there's a mistake here, N++ is described as a stealthy app. Miranda is too with some note.

I like this:

PF.com doesn't have official one, but the most commonly accepted (and applied when adding entries to the database) is:
-Works when moved with USB device to another computer, even if drive letter changes
-Keeps all important settings by itself. Things like MRU lists, last window position etc. are not important.
-Does not depend on any particular software installed, i.e. Java / .NET

Clean / Stealth means that when run on another machine it doesn't leave own files / registry entries.

It's useful for me.

m^(2) · #26 Post by **m^(2)** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 6:50 am

mynokia wrote:Maybe there's a mistake here, N++ is described as a stealthy app. Miranda is too with some note.

Quote from the link:

Stealth: No

The same with Miranda.

mynokia · #27 Post by **mynokia** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 9:35 am

Oh, I don't understand here.

Clean / Stealth means that when run on another machine it doesn't leave own files / registry entries.

and N++ only writes its settings to its folder. So that can N++ doesn't leave anything on other computer, but why it is not accepted as a stealthy app?

Maybe I don't understand the word "stealth", so can you explain it more detailly?

m^(2) · #28 Post by **m^(2)** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 9:46 am

mynokia wrote:Oh, I don't understand here.
Clean / Stealth means that when run on another machine it doesn't leave own files / registry entries.
and N++ only writes its settings to its folder. So that can N++ doesn't leave anything on other computer, but why it is not accepted as a stealthy app?

Maybe I don't understand the word "stealth", so can you explain it more detailly?

You understand correctly, but N++ does write to the registry.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Notepad++_file

mynokia · #29 Post by **mynokia** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 4:31 am

Thank you m^2. I understand now!