press: bc interview in asian wsj

A few weeks ago I spoke with reporter Jeremy Wagstaff, a reporter with the Asian Wall Street Journal, on the curious topic of 'why installing software is so hard'. His article hit the wire today (signup required), but I had to give him props here for what I think is the best computer quote I've read so far in 2006:

The bottom line is, your computer is happiest when you take it out of the box for the first time and boot it up. It's all downhill from there on. I love software and would love you to like it too, but until things get easier, I'd suggest you think hard before you install something new.

Awww, Jeremy, we all know a computer without software is like a day without sunshine. Until fully networked operating systems exist, and until all of the tools we use can be accessed in real-time (and off-line as well) via broadband connections, we're stuck with the sad reality that software needs to get installed.

So whether you're a fan of MSI, InstallScript, RPM, ZIP, TAR, Debian, shell scripting or whatever, you have to package your software for delivery, and unless you want unhappy users, you better get it right. Mr. Wagstaff captured that thought of mine perfectly:

The way he sees it, many software developers spend too much time writing their software, and not enough thinking about how it might actually get onto your computer.

Huzzah, point made!