Why do people think RR is hard to setup?

2k1Toaster · 04-20-2008, 03:48 AM

Ok, I am a little angered about all the posts about RR.

With the recent SD blow up, there has been a lot of talk from SD users about switching to something else.

And then there is the newbie area as well where you always hear the advice: "RR is free and takes a lot to setup".

Bull****.

When I started which wasnt too long ago, it wasnt easy, but it wasnt hard. I accepted and spread the RR being more difficult to setup mantra.

Now this is not true anymore, but I still keep seeing people say this! Is it because they are ignorant, or stupid, or what, I don't know.

Thanks to the work of people around here there is an installer package, update program, and a plethora of skins.

Myth Zapper:

RR is hard to setup -- Nope. Download Winamp installer. Click next, next finish. Download the RR Installer. Click next, next finish. And RR pops up all ready for you to use. You seriously dont even need to be a trained monkey to do this.

RR is ugly (or I prefer the look of [blah]) -- As with SD, CF, and every other good frontend out there, you can skin it. That is the whole point. Dont like the way it looks? Check out one of the gagillion skins. Like the look, but not the logo/clock? Remove it or replace it by things others have made and posted. Like the look of another frontend? Well there is probably a skin that looks just like that frontend, for RoadRunner. Heck the whole program is built off the death of another frontend (but that was before my time

)

RR doesnt have [x] feature -- RoadRunner has every feature. And since it is free, open source, has a huge programmer user set, and the most widely used. A big for SD is gestures... RoadRunner has them too and first. And you can customize the gestures. Phone control... well that is a testy subject on the SD side. There is no PC software that is 100% for phone control, but FreeFone gets pretty close, and guess what RR uses it. Radio, HD Radio, Sirius, XM, all that. Want GPS? Buy iGuidance or Streets and Trips or Mappoint (what SD uses) or Destinator (what CF uses), or whatever you want. You arent locked in to a certain software. And with the sub-$100 GPS program you still come out way ahead with RR. Also look at the RR plugins folder. Everything you could ever want from gas prices to movie theatre places.

You have to install a seperate program (Winamp) to use it -- Yeah so what? It is free. And it has better audio processing than Windows Media Player and a ton of plugins available for it. So you could say SD requires an external program too. If you nLite your install and dont put WMP in there, it wont work because it piggy backs too. I am pretty sure CF does the same thing, but I am not familiar enough with it to make that claim a fact.

So really, what is it that makes people so scared of RoadRunner, or continue to pay good hard earned money on the exact same software that is just a free download away with continuous updates by the master guino? Seriously, I don't get it anymore. There is no excuse. Absolutely no reason to go with something other than RoadRunner and I would add an "IMHO" but it is no longer an opinion, it is a fact.

Jebus · 04-20-2008, 11:33 AM

I agree 100%.
As a complete NEWBIE, I joined this board in December 07, I Didn't Download anything till March 08. What I did do during my lurking stage is READ, READ READ. By just READING the posts on this board it became very clear to me that Road Runner was the obvious choice for a CarPC Front End.
Now I am not a professional coder, I am just a heavy equipment mechanic by trade. I just happen to have a computer hobby. A hobby thats been active since 1985.
One mantra that applies to my work and my hobby is that, If you are going to do anything do it well, research it, read about it, learn it. My work would not pay me big bucks to tell them that it's too hard, I can't do it.
That is the problem with most people these days. Most don't want to get their hands dirty. They are willing to pay bucks for something they could do themselves, whining that they don't have the time or don't understand it. Most can barely spell their own name. Then they scream bloody murder when things don't work as expected.
I refuse to fall victim to that. Satisfaction comes from accomplishing challenges. Knowledge is power.
Anyways, After installing Road Runner, browsing the many TEXT files that it uses for configuration, and getting the concept that Guino had the foresight to implement, It became very apparent that Road Runner was the choice of choices for a CarPC Front End. There are literally endless possibilities with this software platform.
I agree 100%.
...JJG

greatwhite · 04-20-2008, 11:37 AM

Both of 'em.

And I'd just like to say thanks to Guino and all the programmers/skinners out there typing code and massaging .psd's late into the night...............

Well done!

danielkh · 04-20-2008, 11:42 AM

Actually, if it's me you are angered at (my guess is yes. lol).....let me clarify....

Getting RR setup to run is extremely simple. Yes, totally. However, trying to "personalize it", say emplementing google earth for 3d maps, embedding apps for specific control, etc, it not so simple. My apologies on that. RR itself is very simple to set up.

I'm still trying to get the zip code finder to work. And the gas price mapper locks up RR.

What I meant with SD was, load it and it runs. And if it doesn't, you are SUPPOSED to have some recourse as you actually paid for it. I always felt guilty reporting problems on a "free" program. lol

Digital FX 3.0 rocks! (and since the last time I used RR was 2.0, I CAN claim ignorance!)

2k1Toaster · 04-20-2008, 12:06 PM

It wasnt directed at anyone specifically, just seems there is a recent upsurge of these hooey posts.

And if you have a problem, ask on the forums. Instead of 1 or 2 people that help, you get the entire RR community ready and able to answer.

danielkh · 04-20-2008, 12:12 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by 2k1Toaster

It wasnt directed at anyone specifically, just seems there is a recent upsurge of these hooey posts.

And if you have a problem, ask on the forums. Instead of 1 or 2 people that help, you get the entire RR community ready and able to answer.

Well, I publicly retract about 80% of my statements about RR.

kev000 · 04-20-2008, 12:52 PM

For his exemplar defense of the FREE, I award TK1Toaster, the RR Defender of the Faith title.

So tell me about this SD blow up??? I didn't see any blood.

2k1Toaster · 04-20-2008, 01:06 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by kev000

For his exemplar defense of the FREE, I award TK1Toaster, the RR Defender of the Faith title.

So tell me about this SD blow up??? I didn't see any blood.

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/stre...idiculous.html

that's just the tip of the iceberg.

danielkh · 04-20-2008, 01:10 PM

Ok, I'm messing with RR DFX3 and have come across an example of my "Programmer A not knowing what programmer B is doing". This has nothing to do with DFX3 but rather the skins included.

I'm messing around with the music interfaces. Love the internet radio and now looking at jukebox. You search for music, find something to play, and it starts. But it has also rewritten your current playlist to that only song (andc anything else you select in JB). It's also downloaded it to some strange place (I finally found it), and if you go back and try to play something else, it plays them both at the same time. Fantastic ideas, but they just don't play nice together.

That's the 20% I don't retract.

Not that example alone, but problems like it. Multiple programmers create multiple problems. Individually, they are fantastic! But together, they didn't know how to interact.

2k1Toaster · 04-20-2008, 01:29 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by danielkh

Ok, I'm messing with RR DFX3 and have come across an example of my "Programmer A not knowing what programmer B is doing". This has nothing to do with DFX3 but rather the skins included.

I'm messing around with the music interfaces. Love the internet radio and now looking at jukebox. You search for music, find something to play, and it starts. But it has also rewritten your current playlist to that only song (andc anything else you select in JB). It's also downloaded it to some strange place (I finally found it), and if you go back and try to play something else, it plays them both at the same time. Fantastic ideas, but they just don't play nice together.

That's the 20% I don't retract.

Not that example alone, but problems like it. Multiple programmers create multiple problems. Individually, they are fantastic! But together, they didn't know how to interact.

It the exact same thing as DigiMods... Not all digimods play well together I am sure.

danielkh · 04-20-2008, 01:37 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by 2k1Toaster

It the exact same thing as DigiMods... Not all digimods play well together I am sure.

Great point.....no they don't. When SD 1.1.1.0 came out, I found that the autohide digimods no longer worked properly (mappoint would die). The answer was to get rid of them and report to the digimod creator that the problem was there. I know who owns what.

But with RR, who do you report that issue to? Which skin was first and which one has the problem? Report to both and they might go the wrong way and make things worse.

Don't get me wrong, I love RR and overall, is fantastic! But the little annoyances like this is what made me go to commercial front end. I wanted a single contact that I could report issues to and get them resolved.

Yeah, I know, that worked out so well for me, didn't it. lol

So now I am going back to RR, and will just go through, methodically, on my laptop, getting things working right, and then tranfer all the files to the car. Before, I didn't even know if everything in my carputer worked. Now I do. That's a big start in getting RR "personalized".

russoxley187 · 04-22-2008, 07:48 AM

Roadrunner is great, and free of course...
I do however like streetdeck and Cf, but its a little pricey for me.
$300 for some software to run in my truck? I don't make that much money.
If it was $100 i most likely do it. I know it costs to develop these great progs, but thats just a little to high for me.

Sal R. · 04-22-2008, 09:44 AM

Beats me.

Thinking back to my newbie days when I dived in head-first and picked up my carPC w/ RR already loaded on it, it wasn't hard to setup, even with all the extras, plugins, etc.

Because of it's large user-base, just about all the problems that comes w/ "personalizing" RR has one solution or another.

In terms of support for RR or it's skins, there is a pool of people willing to lend a hand and troubleshoot to find a resolution. Granted, it's not a direct POC of any sort, but more like a customer service center where someone will eventually take the call if you have problems.

Because its open-source and popularity, I'm sure there are talented individuals willing to carry the torch should the big g decide to hang up his keyboard. So support for the program itself could possibly never be dead and buried.

Unless that "killer front-end" ever comes out and buries them all.

gummybear · 04-27-2008, 10:44 PM

i've done a few versions of my own car pc (3 to be precise!), and front ends i started with frodo to RR to centrafuse.

i must say, when i first used RR it was extremely alien, not very user friendly and seemed all over the place, this was a few years ago, so i think RR was relatively young in a development sense, but an intuitive GUI is always something that should be easy straight off the blocks, not something that takes ages to do or even have the need for someone to "skin" the program for you.

on a comparasion basis back then frodo was much easier to use then RR, the intial setup interface of RR was very poor in my eyes, but I haven't used RR for quite awhile now (possibly 1 year) since i've moved on to Centrafuse but it did its job "well enough"

since i've moved over to CF, i'll never look back, the thing works 99.9% exactly how you need it, support for issues so far has been excellent.

i find the problem with open source is you are always "waiting" for people to implement, and if the developer base is large then i think it makes the system too complicated, i found that with CF, once its installed it has the simplest initial setup and after that everything just works, no fiddling.

if RR was like that i would certainly look into it if CF decides to charge more money for extra features, etc and i think its not worth it.

2k1Toaster · 04-27-2008, 11:22 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by gummybear

i've done a few versions of my own car pc (3 to be precise!), and front ends i started with frodo to RR to centrafuse.

i must say, when i first used RR it was extremely alien, not very user friendly and seemed all over the place, this was a few years ago, so i think RR was relatively young in a development sense, but an intuitive GUI is always something that should be easy straight off the blocks, not something that takes ages to do or even have the need for someone to "skin" the program for you.

on a comparasion basis back then frodo was much easier to use then RR, the intial setup interface of RR was very poor in my eyes, but I haven't used RR for quite awhile now (possibly 1 year) since i've moved on to Centrafuse but it did its job "well enough"

since i've moved over to CF, i'll never look back, the thing works 99.9% exactly how you need it, support for issues so far has been excellent.

i find the problem with open source is you are always "waiting" for people to implement, and if the developer base is large then i think it makes the system too complicated, i found that with CF, once its installed it has the simplest initial setup and after that everything just works, no fiddling.

if RR was like that i would certainly look into it if CF decides to charge more money for extra features, etc and i think its not worth it.

things have changed though.

Agreed that a year or even 6 months ago things were pretty shady if you had no idea. But now the installer makes it exactly like CF to setup I am sure.

The older posts at the time were correct. RR is powerful but a PITA to setup.

Now though it is RR is power and very easy to setup.

I hope nothing ever happens to CF, but if it does, give RR a try