Lily Wins on Windows
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Until now, installing LilyPond on Windows was almost (http://mail.gnu.org/pipermail/help-gnu-music/2001-April/000620.html) a dull process that could easily be automated (ftp://appel.lilypond.org/pub/gnu-windows/cygwin-1.1.7/bin/tar/lily-install-0.7-1.tar.gz) and scripted.  This meant that you would have more time left for actual work, and we all know that's not what computers were designed for.

Well, that kind of scary automating is no longer necessary! Also, it's no longer needed to download (http://www.gnu.org/software/wget) tarballs (http://appel.lilypond.org/gnu-windows/tar/lilypond/lilypond-1.3.147-1.tar.gz) or move all sorts of files (http://www.gnu.org/software/guile) around (http://www.mail-archive.com/gnu-music-discuss@gnu.org/msg04380.html).  Sometimes, the automagical breaking while unpacking (http://www.winzip.com) process would even install flawlessly, and you had to break it yourself by flattening (http://mail.gnu.org/pipermail/gnu-music-discuss/2000-October/000517.html) the LilyPond (http://www.lilypond.org) tarball.

Our specially formed Windows support task force has, after thoroughly investigating your particular needs as an individual user, formuled the revolutionary new concept of one-size-fits-all software, and delivered way before schedule (http://www.mail-archive.com/gnu-music-discuss%40gnu.org/msg03647.html).

With the upcoming LilyPond-1.4 (http://mail.gnu.org/pipermail/info-gnu-music/2001-April/000060.html) release, we have innovated agressively, by copying and mutilating (ftp://ftp.lilypond.org/pub/LilyPond/gnu-windows/latest/cygwin-installer.patch) Cygwin (http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin)'s Windows installer (ftp://ftp.franken.de/pub/win32/develop/gnuwin32/cygwin/mirrors/cygnus/snapshots/cygwin-src-20010410.tar.bz2). No difficult checksums (http://www.lilypond.org/gnu-windows/tar/lilypond/md5.sum) or signatures.  Enjoy the the thrills of running untrusted binaries (http://www.lilypond.org/gnu-windows/latest/setup.exe) with adminstrator rights, on your painfully firewalled intranet.

We proudly present our Gourmet-click-de-luxe install: offering at least 32 totally unnecessary clicks (babysit.html), before you can actually run LilyPond.  This includes a nice and warm welcome click:

     GNU LilyPond Setup

        Version x.y
        (C) Red Hat and us

            [N]ext->

and of course, especially for all people with an exceptionally fine developed Windows taste, the maybe even more hollow message that tells us there's nothing to be told, really:

     GNU LilyPond Setup

        Installation completed.

            [O]k

Yes, that's right.  Farewell smooth nightly upgrades (http://www.lilypond.org/auto).  Even a click at the very end is required, so that you actually feel very useful babysitting the whole process.  Try it.  You will agree that with this new innovative installer we have truly reached the holy grail of user friendliness.