Re: AW: tdf#108580: integrate vc_redist.exe into Windows installer

Hi Juergen,

thanks for feedback!

On 12/14/2017 11:04 AM, Juergen Funk Mailinglist wrote:
> this is a good idea, but I think the better way is, when the system need the vc_redist then we 
> "download" the new  vc_redist.exe from MS and starting.
> This has 2 advantage
>   - the LO msi would not be bigger
>   - we install always the up to date redist-dll's

Well, the main problem here is that there's no "latest vc_redist.exe" 
static link on MS site. So, this approach is simply impossible without 
us creating a redirect on our side. And this would create additional 
problems:

1. Creating a redirect at TDF side imposes additional load to our server 
infrastructure;
2. Users will depend on reliability of TDF servers wrt this (in terms of 
their state, correctness of the link, and also possible 
man-in-the-middle problems with modified links pointing to malware) - 
note that LO downloads themselves are served from multiple mirrors, but 
this kind of redirection can't work using mirrors;
3. Users would need internet connection at time of setup (which might 
not be there: many download the installer, to bring it somewhere where 
there's no Internet connection).

So this is just not an option - at least, this is much worse than 
suggestion to simply telling people to manually download and install the 
redistributable themselves, put on the download page.

> In the current way it is possible you install older one of the dll's, and after the LO installation 
> it pop up the Windows-Update, that I think is a little bit strange.

No; this is absolutely normal - most softwares out there behave this 
way, so not different from usual. Of course, *if* your suggestion was 
possible to be implemented in a reasonable way, it would be best - but 
the downsides outweigh the benefit.

--
Best regards,
Mike Kaganski