Applet VS Webstart , what do you prefer as a end user ?

[princec]

Although: applets are great, in that you get instant accessibility.

But...

if only Webstart were as good at installing software as, say, NSIS is on Windows. In other words, a proper, proper application deployment thing.

Cas

[kappa]

if only Webstart were as good at installing software as, say, NSIS is on Windows. In other words, a proper, proper application deployment thing.

technically you could have an applet based installer that fully installs the application from within the browser, start menu and desktop icons, would that not be better than downloading an exe installer and then running it?

[kevglass]

technically you could have an applet based installer that fully installs the application from within the browser, start menu and desktop icons, would that not be better than downloading an exe installer and then running it?

From a purely technical point of view not really much difference, you've still had to give away full control of your system to an applet.

From an end user point of view, who is most likely used to the multitude of installers they run on their system in the past, certainly not. People trust what they're used to, whether it's more secure or not.

to avoid misunderstood of the initial pool

consider that the original question assume that both solution work well and that you are a end user (not a developer).

Sorta a pointless question in that case though - in the perfect world, where applets don't have any issues nor does webstart. So both solutions are absolutely perfect and I don't care which I get

Kev

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[DzzD]

technically you could have an applet based installer that fully installs the application from within the browser, start menu and desktop icons, would that not be better than downloading an exe installer and then running it?

I think that Webstart look like download & execute of exe file, I cannot see its interrest

[DzzD]

Sorta a pointless question in that case though - in the perfect world, where applets don't have any issues nor does webstart. So both solutions are absolutely perfect and I don't care which I get

not really pointless, my side I care, Webstart look for me the same as when I click an exe file then execute

[erikd]

Sorta a pointless question in that case though - in the perfect world, where applets don't have any issues nor does webstart. So both solutions are absolutely perfect and I don't care which I get

But both have slightly different use cases. I guess the question is about the usability from a user's pov, will they prefer applets or webstart?

Considering that 99% of the users will get to your game's website using a browser, you might as well start/install directly from the browser. In which case there is not much use for webstart, unless Java Web Start's functionality is *exactly how you want it to work*, which I think is not the case for most of us, even if it would be bug-free.

So in a perfect world I'd favour Applets.

But in the current imperfect world, don't applets have quite severe memory restrictions on many systems? Maybe not on newer Sun plugins, but what about Mac?
Restricted heap size was one of the reasons I just couldn't use applets and had to use web start.

[kevglass]

But both have slightly different use cases

Yes, exactly my point, in a perfect world each of them would fufil their use cases perfectly. So when I was in one use case - casual web based stuff, applets would be perfect. When I was wanted something outside of the browser and desktop integrated then webstart would be perfect.

Considering that 99% of the users will get to your game's website using a browser

Again, it depends on the game. 99% of users don't get their AAA PC games from the web even now.

I agree, for the stuff the majority of people round here write right now Applets are an ideal end user experience (if plugin1 wasn't so flawed). For other larger games the average end user isn't expecting or wanting something tied into their browser - though hopefully with advent of things like Quake Live and Instant Action this is changing. We'll have to see how successful they are in the long run to really gauge how user's will perceive this stuff.

I have feeling the the op has a vested interest in applets being more accepted by the end user than webstart, so it might be a slightly tainted question.

Kev