Why do people think RR is hard to setup? - Page 4

Bugbyte · 05-11-2008, 10:17 AM

This is why people think RR is hard to configure.

I think RR has come a long way and it is a fantastic example of community development. It's a model for other communities. But saying that because it is free, you have to be willing to put in some time to figure it out doesn't make sense. I'd think you all would want more people to use it, not just for it to be the best choice for people who are too cheap to buy a 'real' program.

Besides, who says that free software has to be hard to use? I've seen lots of free programs that were super easy to configure.

Again, I posted earlier that I found RR easy to install and run for basic use. That was thanks in large part to RRconfig, which made it much easier to understand the settings than sorting through .ini files.

Keep up the good work, guys! This is a great program.

jmbickham · 05-11-2008, 01:47 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by kbreeden

Perhaps if you don't like the extra features in a frontend or a skin, or how hard it is to install or configure, you should demand a refund. Oh, that's right, it's all free. If you don't like a particular front end or skin don't use it, buy one or build your own. Bellyaching about things people have spent hundreds or thousands of hours creating and then make available for free out of the kindness of their hearts is neither a good way to show appreciation for their work nor a good way to encourage them to do more. Nobody owes you anything.

No one is doing me a favor. I didn't ask or beg someone to make something for me. They choose of their own free will to make something and offer it to the community out of the goodness of their hearts. They put it out there for people to FREELY use and comment on. If they didn't want that, then they should have kept it on a private site only told to their friends. So don't give me nobody owes me anything. Besides the fact that that kind of attitude is just a cop out, if no one can make suggestions or give constructive criticism, then said software will never improve to the benefit of everyone.

It's this kind of attitude that makes me hate dealing with "hobbyists"/"enthusiasts"/etc. of any genre... they ALL have the same snotty attitude if anyone doesn't agree with their view of the world.

I never said RR was a bad rogram... it's great. Just making suggestions to make it better.

kelmk · 05-11-2008, 03:56 PM

I decided to give RR another go as I do every once and a while. I saw LSX void and thought it looked pretty cool.
RR is definitely not easy to set up. Maybe if you just use the default skin it's a little easier but there are still alot of things you have to configure. Winamp is a major reason why setup is difficult. I have been having resume problems, playlist problems, vis problems, winamp not closing on RR exit, etc.
It takes a lot of reading and searching to find solutions for all the bugs. For example I had to find a way to get ilists working after resume but adding a "ONRESUME","RELOADSKIN" to the exextbl.ini. Now when I resume I have ilists but now a big white box shows up in the top left.
RR is very powerful but far from easy to setup. I have been working on getting lsxvoid 3 working for a good part of the last two days. Not exactly a install and run type of program. The other thing is the reliance on external exes, autoit scripts, programs makes things more complicated. Lots of things to install other than just RR. Weather doesn't work, gas prices don't work.
Did I mention Winamp sucks?

Machinehead · 05-11-2008, 04:24 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by kelmk

Weather doesn't work, gas prices don't work.

Weather and Gas prices started having issues only recently, and that's only because the websites that they tapped for data changed. It'll get fixed soon enough.

Quote: Originally Posted by kelmk

Did I mention Winamp sucks?

I'm not a fan either, but it's a background program. I never see the winamp window in my setup, never look at it, only had to configure it once.

And it's way less of a hog than WMA.

kbreeden · 05-11-2008, 06:34 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by jmbickham

No one is doing me a favor. I didn't ask or beg someone to make something for me. They choose of their own free will to make something and offer it to the community out of the goodness of their hearts. They put it out there for people to FREELY use and comment on. If they didn't want that, then they should have kept it on a private site only told to their friends. So don't give me nobody owes me anything. Besides the fact that that kind of attitude is just a cop out, if no one can make suggestions or give constructive criticism, then said software will never improve to the benefit of everyone.

It's this kind of attitude that makes me hate dealing with "hobbyists"/"enthusiasts"/etc. of any genre... they ALL have the same snotty attitude if anyone doesn't agree with their view of the world.

I never said RR was a bad rogram... it's great. Just making suggestions to make it better.

Well then perhaps it would be better if instead of using a word like "annoying" you would say something like "an improvement might be..." I can see people who have spent many hours producing these things being annoyed by the attitude of people like you. And then they might do exactly as you suggest and make it available privately to only their friends, causing the entire community to suffer. Offering constructive criticism is one thing, but copping an attitude is another. And for what it's worth, I'm not a hobbyist or an enthusiast and don't know the first thing about programming. I have simply paid attention and read the available FAQs and help files and have never had any of the problems with installation or usage that some people on this thread are complaining about.

Tidder · 05-11-2008, 08:09 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by kbreeden

Perhaps if you don't like the extra features in a frontend or a skin, or how hard it is to install or configure, you should demand a refund. Oh, that's right, it's all free. If you don't like a particular front end or skin don't use it, buy one or build your own. Bellyaching about things people have spent hundreds or thousands of hours creating and then make available for free out of the kindness of their hearts is neither a good way to show appreciation for their work nor a good way to encourage them to do more. Nobody owes you anything.

It just depends on the programmer/group putting out the software. If they're releasing it to everyone, and encouraging others to use it, this type of thing is expected. I think what they need to do is setup a better bug tracker, a feature request area, and a future wish list. Bug tracker = fix the major problems now, Feature Request = This feature works ok but i wish it worked this way, and Future Wish List = Man, I wish RR could shoot lasers out of my headlights. A better structured forum, or even a new website/forum of their own just for RR would help obtain better results than piggybacking on mp3car.com. I would even be interested in contributing to get such a website going for this.

And to the contrary to your "Nobody owes you anything" line, if they're putting out software and wanting people to use it, it should probably work a little of how the consumer expects it to. I mean why is it that opensource free projects like Ubuntu are so widely used? Because when someone whines or complains about something not working, it gets fixed. Sure, they may not "owe" it to us, but if they want us to use their software, they listen to the people.

And I'm not just speaking of RR, I'm talking opensource free stuff in general. Guino and the rest of the crew do an awesome job of adding/fixing/changing anytime there is a large enough want or need for something.

Quote: Originally Posted by kbreeden

Well then perhaps it would be better if instead of using a word like "annoying" you would say something like "an improvement might be..." I can see people who have spent many hours producing these things being annoyed by the attitude of people like you. And then they might do exactly as you suggest and make it available privately to only their friends, causing the entire community to suffer. Offering constructive criticism is one thing, but copping an attitude is another. And for what it's worth, I'm not a hobbyist or an enthusiast and don't know the first thing about programming. I have simply paid attention and read the available FAQs and help files and have never had any of the problems with installation or usage that some people on this thread are complaining about.

Well I'm guessing you really haven't used RR to its full potential then.

If you've never had problems with install or usage, maybe you just haven't used it long enough, or haven't ventured out into the world and threw together a custom skin with extra lil tidbits that weren't in the original skin or program for that matter.

Anyway, you know what they say about opinions.

kirk78h · 05-12-2008, 02:35 AM

Some things in software development are universal. On one side, you have the developers, contributors, early adopters and people who are very "close" to the product. In fact, they are so close to the product, it is difficult to understand how some people just don't "get it". On the other side, some users are on the outside looking in; and everything looks Greek. They are frustrated, and can't describe the specific things they need help on. So, they say, This Sucks!; Only geeks can understand it; etc (Frustration does that). A very polarized view results.

I've found RR to be an outstanding program. It is also extremely flexible; which is extremely impressive. On the other hand, I've spent many hours trying to get some features to work; only to give up and walk away. Coverflow looked so cool; but always locked my machine up. I still don't know why. I also tried to get Google Earth tracking to work with similar results. I know other people use both these features with no problems, so the error must be mine (hardware, configuration, or some combination). I've learned to live without them. On the other hand, I've customized most of the graphics in my setup; and configured RR to be controlled hands-free. I'm extremely happy with my setup.

At the end of the day, better communication (in both directions) would make new users much more successful and happy with RR. It would also, in turn, make RR a better product.

And, as Dennis Miller used to say -- Its just my opinion; I could be wrong.

Kirk

CarComp · 05-12-2008, 03:51 AM

RR definately needs its own dedicated site (not guinos) apart from mp3car that has the downloads, the skins, the bugtracker the faqs, and a link back here at LEAST. Something with a database running in the background.

Blue ZX3 · 05-18-2008, 12:38 AM

I'll start by saying... WOW, WOW...

As I see it...

There are a few(1-2) good ideas here, in this thread. I have previously mentioned to Guino about changing the default location that RR looks to for skins, as he currently has it coded to look in his developing area. Could also add that to the RRConfig when there is not a previous skinpath set.

I really can't believe all the comments about how hard RR is to setup, all of which are a bunch on non-sense. In the past, yes, no installer and a outdated rrconfig, but now, there is an installer, updated rrconfig (which places all of the builtin features to user the fingertips, sorry had to plug one of my contributes). But then, I'm also very comp lit and have used RR since it was origanally called "ReMedia Car", so that makes everything about RR pretty much second nature to me.