Node installer built in Electron

[MylesBorins]

So there have been many threads about the variety of ways in which our installer is less than perfect. Dealing with installer frameworks is kind of the worst.

Would anyone be interested in exploring an alternative installer built with electron?

[ghost]

what about the file size? will it go up? i mean, this is electron we're talking about here

[Fishrock123]

@ore Probably but it could act like a sort of version installer. Could have an option of which version from in it. Also it doesn't make the binaries go up in size at all, probably.

Do consider how many problems we've had which the current installer programs... they are just a mess all around, especially for OS X.

[ghost]

@Fishrock123 yeah, that was my only concern pretty much. a multi-version installer sounds nice and reduces efforts on the website!

[MylesBorins]

     osx - 117.3 mb
  linux32 -  60.3 mb
  linux64 -  55.2 mb
 win ia32 -  47.8 mb
  win x64 -  66.2 mb

This is the application size for various deploy targets taken from electron/electron#2003 (comment)

I do think @Fishrock123's point is a good one though... this could be a one time installer and updater as opposed to what we have now

[ghost]

just imagine! we'll be the first project of this size to only have one download button on our website!

[mikeal]

We could also end the install with onboarding into documentation on how to use Node.js.

Also, we could include a version switcher, that would make things really nice.

[MylesBorins]

in theory the docs could be embedded in the application

[evanlucas]

The biggest issue I've seen with OS X installers seems to be dependent on whether node/npm are owned by root. Can you get administrator access via electron on OS X?

[MylesBorins]

Looks like there is a discussion about this alread

electron/packager#33

/cc @maxogden

[MylesBorins]

I'm not 100% this is what we want, but --> https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder

Seems to be capable of making a .dmg. It should be able to make a .msi but there is currently a bug they are fixing

[eljefedelrodeodeljefe]

I'd be in support for @mikeal's point of the version manager.
Also: installing headers (process.realease.headersUrl) for a respective version in a normalized place would be helpful on all the platforms.

[eljefedelrodeodeljefe]

From nodejs/node#7371: should include clean uninstallers.

[MylesBorins]

it is happening https://github.com/nodejs/installer