When LibreOffice tells me to manually upgrade, I go to a page with this message:
“You need to download and install these files in order:”
I never know what to do with my old version.
I’d love it if someone could add just one sentence to that download page, even if it’s in 8 point italic font way at the bottom, from among the following:
- “If you are upgrading from a previous version of LibreOffice, it is unnecessary to uninstall the previous version, this version will overwrite it.”
- “If you are upgrading…, it is recommended but not required to uninstall the previous version before proceeding.”
- “If you are upgrading…, it is REQUIRED to uninstall the previous version before proceeding.”
- “If you are upgrading from a previous version which you no longer wish to use, it is recommended you uninstall the previous version before proceeding, as this installer will install a new program side by side the old version, not removing it at all. If you later decide to uninstall these version, your computer may become confused about whether to keep or remove shared resources.”
- “If you are upgrading from a version prior to X, please uninstall before proceeding. More recent versions do not need to be uninstalled.”
- <some other alternative?>
I can never remember which of these it is.
Incidentally, searching the forums for “uninstall” didn’t return relevant results for me, but I’ve got to think that’s a bug with the search code. I googled for “uninstall previous versions libreoffice,” and got great advice for upgrading to much older versions (just uninstall 3.5 and before?), I have no idea if the advice stands.
Regardless of the answer for this particular version, you don’t really solve the usability issue by just answering me here, or telling users which one of these is correct somewhere in the forums or in a FAQ, because eventually you’ll release a new patch, and people who aren’t really familiar with the project will have to go off searching from scratch all over again. (That is, having the answer “out there somwewhere” isn’t always enough, if it’s prerequisite to getting things up and running. Imagine if merely downloading the installer required uses to first search for some hidden code word on google or in the forums… even if that special code word was plainly written in the release notes, it wouldn’t be the high point of usability.)
I know that there are competing demands on a download page, keeping it clean and simple, and you’ll have to weigh those in this decision. (Sorry this is a more a letter to whoever controls the download page than a forum question…)
Either way, thanks for contributing a really great piece of software to the open source community!