Thread: Install the components separately

What's the difference if one chooses to install the components separately? Wouldn't that give a developer greater flexibility?

It is important to remember that we intentionally decided to satisfy the novice user. We observed that there are many power users/developers that roll their own stacks today. Thus, we felt their needs are generally met.

The unaddressed need was to provide an environment for people with less experience. An example to illustrate this point comes from the' early days of Linux. There were users who chose to compile their own distribution source code from scratch. This offered incredible flexibility and control. It was also very time-consuming and had a critical prerequisite of the knowledge and skills to do so. The popularity of Ubuntu, Fedora and other distributions is testament to the fact that most people do not want to bother with rolling their own-they want the software to just work. Thus it depends on who you are trying to serve. We want to help the novice user.

The bottom line is that to download, install and configure the components provided with CAFE will take you more time and effort than simply installing CAFE. This question also assumes you know which component line-up you are going to use in the first place. If you need to research and decide between multiple components for each constituent of the stack, you could be looking at weeks of effort.