[wix-users] [SUSPICIOUS] Is WiX 4.0 dead?

[Russell Haley]

On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 12:07 PM, Rob Mensching via wix-users <
wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org> wrote:

> A couple good questions. Let me try to provide the missing context.
>
>
> First, WiX v4.0 isn't dead. We are making progress but it is way slower
> than I'd like. I know I don't write about that enough on my blog but we do
> talk about it the WiX Online Meetings (you can get the highlights here:
> https://www.firegiant.com/blog/ if you can't/don't attend in person/want
> to watch the recordings).
>
> There are two things that impact WiX v4 progress:
>
> 1. The WiX v3.x security releases really taxed us. We felt we had to
> address them quickly (I assume everyone agrees) but they came at
> inopportune times. That caused real disruption to the schedules in our "day
> jobs". Which leads to second point.
>
> 2. The people that work on the WiX toolset today have been really busy
> with other things. One of those things is the Desktop Bridge/AppX, which is
> now called MSIX (I'll blog about it more now that details are out).
> Developing that solution took tremendous amount of effort from a couple of
> WiX Toolset's core contributors (namely, Bob and I). You can see the
> results of that labor here: https://www.firegiant.com/r/appx/  (just
> replace the word "AppX" with "MSIX", it's the same thing). Which leads to
> my next point.
>
>
> MSIX. Kevin is right and WiX is well positioned to support MSIX. It isn't
> as easy as you might think and (as I just mentioned) we've poured a
> significant amount of resources into developing the solution at FireGiant.
> For that reason (which basically comes down to the fact that I'd like to
> keep putting food on the table at home), FireGiant is not currently
> planning to contribute MSIX support to the WiX toolset OSS project.
>

Ha! I was wondering how you were keeping the lights on. :)

I would be perfectly happy to shell out $100 USD right now for a single
license for APPX but your licensing model precludes me and my open source
project (that will never have an income). In a professional/business
context, anything shy of $500/developer for tools they use regularly is a
good price in my mind (I've seen stupid manager burn TENS of thousands of
dollars of wages just to not buy an app). Again, $100 for my little pet
project, sure. But as an individual I can't shell out $850 for 9 other
licenses that will never be used. (It's not clear from the light reading I
did if a build server is covered in the license and if that takes a seat,
so I *may* need two).


>
> Finally, where does that leave WiX v4 progress?
>
> As always, you can get involved. Developing WiX v4 code is usually what
> people think of first. But that (probably) takes the most effort. You can
> also get involved by improving our documentation. You can get involved by
> investigating bugs and providing a targeted example that clearly reproduces
> the issue. You can answer questions and encourage others as they learn the
> WiX Toolset. All those (and others I haven't thought of) are ways to take
> load off the core contributors so our volunteer hours are spent writing
> code.
>
> The above is about spending your time to help the WiX community directly.
> If your company depends on the WiX Toolset, you might consider purchasing a
> support contract from FireGiant (https://www.firegiant.com/services/).
> That is an indirect way to fund the WiX Toolset since all fixes for
> FireGiant customers are published back. If the top 100 companies that use
> the WiX Toolset had support contracts with FireGiant, we'd have a lot of
> resources to dedicate to improving the WiX Toolset.
>
> Having made the pitch for my company's existence, I want to take a moment
> and thank all of you that answer questions on this mailing list. Seeing
> questions answered here takes a huge weight off my shoulders. I really do
> appreciate those of you that take the time share your experience with the
> WiX Toolset with those looking for help.
>
>         Thank you.
>
>
> In the end, nothing is dead. We're just working within our resource
> limitations.
>

So let me ask a slightly different question: What is the state of the
current 4.x WIX tools? Should we be looking to transition our 3.x code to
4.x because it's reasonably stable at this point and only feature releases
are expected? Or, is the API still unstable and not recommended for
production use?

Russ

>
>
> _______________________________________________________________
>  FireGiant  |  Dedicated support for the WiX toolset  |
> http://www.firegiant.com/
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: wix-users <wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> On Behalf Of
> Kevin Marshall via wix-users
> Sent: Wednesday, May 9, 2018 8:00 AM
> To: wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org
> Cc: Kevin Marshall <kevin.marshall at musco.com>;
> wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org
> Subject: Re: [wix-users] [SUSPICIOUS] Is WiX 4.0 dead?
>
> Reading this, it seems to me like Wix is well positioned moving forward. I
> can't speak to the on ice part, but it seems like it should be easy for Wix
> to extend to support MSIX.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Kevin Marshall
>
> WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org> on
> Wednesday, May 9, 2018 at 7:20 AM -0600 wrote:
>  After going to a new PC with Windows 10 I tried to keep my toolbox tidy
> -  including avoiding age-old stuff like dotNet 3.x and 2.x. For several
> months I kept my old machine for running WiX builds and nothing else, but
> when other tools (Python 3.6 installer) reqired the old dotNet versions
> anyway, I caved in to the pressure.
>  It is about half a year since we saw anything about WiX 4.x. I saw the
> latest blog entry from Rob Mensching about MSIX - is *that* the reason  WiX
> 4.0 is kept on ice?
>
>
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