Wanted: A Usable Installer Technology
On Friday I was at the Israeli Alt.NET conference, which was great. One thing that kept coming up was the frustration of everyone with current Installers technologies. I am using Visual Studio Setup Project, which is rather usable, but has many disadvantages, with the main one being the lack of ability to build it outside of Visual Studio.
I've also tried using WiX, but its XML "UI" and incredible learning curve left me a bit puzzled. The Alt.NET guys assured me that I wasn't the only one. They also bitched about Installshield and other technologies.
At the conference I also heard about FinalBuilder for the first time. This is a popular software that allows you to create a powerful build script using a very simple GUI. You can choose from all manner of tasks, such as creating a web-site in IIS, or setting up a virtual PC.
And my point is this: Using FinalBuilder's trial for the first time made me think - this is exactly what I would look for in a software that let me create installation scripts. Picking tasks such as "Update web site authentication in IIS" or "register to GAC" and putting them in a nice list. From that I could get a working MSI.
If someone went ahead and made this "FinalInstaller", I'm sure he would enjoy a nice income. Go for it, startup guys.