Ask HN: How important is a zero-install experience to you?

1 points by brrrrrm 3y ago ↗ HN

I have personally found myself very hesitant to download or install applications without explicit recommendations from close peers. On the other hand, web experiences can have wait-times significantly longer than it would take to download and install a typical app, but I don't bat an eye. It almost seems to be a hallucinated mental-hurdle.

I'm wondering if my lived experience is common and if there are any well-known statistics to back-up or reject the claim that zero-install is very important to encourage product usage.

(My career is not very product-focused, so this is all very foreign territory to me.)

2 comments

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zzo38computer 3y ago ↗

I will care that it does not affect the rest of the system, and that I can compile it by myself if desired, without too many dependencies

Leftium 3y ago ↗

"Create account" seems to be the the new "install" experience on the web. I've noticed almost every "Show HN" that requires creating a new account gets complaints. Might be a vocal minority... (It's not a big deal for me because I just use a password manager to generate/store new account info.)

This has inspired me to create a user account system with anonymous guest accounts. You can use the system right away, then upgrade to a full, permanent account if you wish to keep using the service. Kind of like a shopping cart where you get the option of creating an account at checkout.

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On my PC, I am more likely to install applications that are portable/self-contained. If it's on https://scoop.sh/ I will install it without hesitation.