[Libreoffice-qa] Portable vs Parallel: which one is better?

[Florian Reisinger]

Hi Pedro,

Am 18.05.2013 um 13:48 schrieb Pedro <pedlino at gmail.com>:

> Hi all
>
> In order to test regressions it is useful to have several versions
> installed.

True...

>
> Since under Windows only one (stable) version can be installed as the
> working version, the alternatives are: a Portable version or a parallel
> installation.

Portable is not a 100% alternative.... (Around 85%)

>
> The main advantage of the Portable version is that it is self-contained,
> drive independent and anyone can install it. However not all versions are
> available because the guys at PortableApps abandon a branch as soon as there
> is a release from a newer branch (e.g. the final version in the 3.5 branch
> is 3.5.5 so 3.5.6 and 3.5.7 were ignored)

That's one con....

> This is not very good because ideally you would use the final version of
> each branch to quickly locate in which branch the regression occurred (and
> then check where it occurred within the branch)

+1

>
> A parallel install can be made with ANY installer so all versions are
> available. However it requires more knowledge (even using Florian
> Reisinger's SI GUI it's not trivial) and the install size is huge (because
> all files are unpacked)

:) Sorry to hear that, but still easier to do it manually.... (Any
more suggestions from your side??)


>
> My questions are:
> 1)If a bug occurs in a portable or parallel install can it be assumed to
> occur in a standard install or some bugs can be due to installation method
> (or inherent to the hacks needed to make the program parallel or portable)?

Parallel: Yes
Portable: IMHO No --> might use a different build, too less insight into that :)

>
> 2) Which one is more realistic when comparing functionality?

Both have the same functionality, but parallel installations run
independent from each other, whereas I (at least) never managed to
start one parallel and a portable version...

Final statement. As the programmer of SI-GUI I recommend parallel
installation, because these are the vanilla builds -> Everyone should
use portable, it's far away from being worthless.... IMHO they simply
are not the vanilla builds. (Keep in mind that IMHO Linux Distros do
not use vanilla as well. I think, that Ubuntu version of version vs.
Vanilla (original) compared to portable and parallel (vanilla)...

BTW: Is there really a that big difference in size?

>
> Cheers,
> Pedro
>
Liebe Grüße, / Yours,
Florian Reisinger
> --
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