We've switched the old back-end of OpenDisc from a highly customised K-Meleon, to the much simpler Kiwix. We've tested it on our local machines, but we'd like your input on how it works for you.
Simply download the iso (around 20MB), test it out and post a comment here with how it worked for you. Be sure to note what OS (eg. XP SP2, W98 etc) so we can concentrate on particular problems as they arise.
Also any suggestions are more than welcome. :)
Cool. Great to see Chris. I've got fairly limited internet, and I've got next week, so i won't be able to download this on school internet for a week at least, but I will then if it's not already released publicly.
Hey, Chris. I tried out the Kiwix. It works pretty nice on my system. It's quicker than K-Melon, which is a very good thing.
For some reason, the pictures on the 7-zip page don't get any bigger when you click on them (with a small window size, but when you maximize the window, they get as big as the screen allows); is it suppposed to be this way?.
Also, the 7-zip installation didn't launch from Kiwix, but I was able to install 7-zip manually from the test CD itself ([testCD]:\html\programs\7zip.exe).
The text at the bottom ("NOT FINAL PRODUCT - visit theopendisc.com for more information.") gets cut when you manually decrease the window size, and no scroll-bars appear to see the full text. For example, if you decrease the window size to 640 x 480, the text gets cut to "NOT FINAL PRODUCT - visit theop" at the bottom, and the title at the top gets cut to "OpenDisc Test R" instead of "OpenDisc Test Release", and there is to horizontal scroll-bar at the bottom.
Otherwise, it works pretty well, the content of the 7-zip page is scrollable (vertical scroll-bar).
I think Kiwix is better once all the bugs are fixed.
My OS is Windows XP SP2.
Are you moving to Kiwix for sure?
We are for sure, once we sort out any problems that arise.
The scrolling problems you mention are fixable (at the moment we haven't touched the css so everything is still suited to the Wikipedia source disc) but the screenshot problem doesn't sound too good. What they should do is enlarge to fill the window, but it seems we need to work on that.
Is there an error for 7Zip not loading, or does it simply not work?
On a near-vanilla copy of XP SP2, when the screenshots are clicked on, they are resized, but that seems to depend on the size of the window. From the looks of it, it seems to resize it to no more than 2/3 of both the width and height of the window, give or take. The height of the default window size seems to be the culprit behind the screenshots only resized slightly from the thumbnails; if the window's height is enlarged, the screenshot is enlarged as well.
As far as 7-Zip, I don't know if this is the same thing daniel mentioned, but Kiwix does complain with a security warning before letting you launch the installer. Although I know it's intended for security, and might be appropriate for the Offline Wikipedia, I'd think the message that appears might scare some people...
I got a security warning before installing 7-Zip, too, but 7-Zip installation didn't start after I pressed the "Launch application" button on the warning screen. There's no problem with the 7-Zip installer on the disk, it just doens't load.
I get the same warning, but from what I can tell it's a Windows warning and not a Kiwix one, but I'll have to check.
I might even see if we can get the browser to be maximised by default, as that might help the screenshot problem.
Hello,
I tested the image on Win2k3 and Vista (Both Vanilla)... Same issues as everyone above with screen shots barely being legible and the warning message. On both OS's I get the security warning but no problems installing the application.
For the most part, I like the new design. I have similar complaints about the screenshots that others have had. I will add that I don't think we need to see the entire desktop when looking at the screenshot of 7-zip. You might have better luck cropping the images a bit.
However, I have one more complaint not mentioned.
I didn't know how to get out of the screenshot and back to the regular window. I didn't see an "X" to close it, clicking on the image didn't work, nor did most other things I tried. I finally discovered that the "Esc" key works, and that clicking on the black area around the image works. But you might want to tell people somehow that is how you close screenshots, or they might turn away from the CD fairly quickly. Of course, this may be a standard thing with Kiwix, but I have never used it before, so I wouldn't know... but then, if I don't know, others probably won't, either.
I also didn't see a splash screen during startup. Is that just not implemented yet, or is that not going to be a feature?
The first time I put the CD into my system, startup seemed a little slow compared to what I am used to, but maybe that is due to the lack of splash screen, so it just seemed longer. The second time I tried (and subsequent tries), it seemed much faster than I am used to, so a splash screen probably isn't needed.
Otherwise, good job. I look forward to seeing the final release.
BTW, I tried mine on WinXP Pro SP2.
I tried it on both XP & Vista. It seemed to work fine on both, at least I couldn't break it. On the XP machine the COMODO firewall griped and moaned, but that is just the way it works.
XP(SP2) = AMD 64 2.something gh, 1g ram, 2 semi large HDs, EVGA 6500 video card.
Vista (SP1) = INTEL Core 2 quad 3gh, 3gb ram, 2 large HDs, EVGA 9800GT vid card.
Both have TV tuners, but I don't think that would have any effect.
If you need any more info, mail me.
Dave
My feedback after running it on a PC with XP Home & SP2 installed
Everything seems to work apart from one little hitch
The home page did not display very well. The right side of the text was cut off
Got around it by shrinking the window and grabbing and extending the right edge
Hope this info helps
Best Wishes
Test System was:- Gigabyte MoBo /Intel Celeron 2.66 GHz CPU / 2 GB Ram / Nvidia Ge Force 6200 Graphics Card
Screen Resolution was 1280x1024 on a BenQ FP767 Monitor
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