I know this is going to come across like boinc bashing. I am disappointed and frustrated with the BOINC agent install process. I am sad that this is going to end up forcing me to leave the grid.

Take it as what you will, maybe some of these thoughts can spark better work out of the developers.

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I have been running 3 Windows 2000/XP machines with UD for years without any issues.

Tried to install BOINC today on one of the W2K machines. It was too weird and painful. Total time waster.


I can’t work out how to connect the BOINC agent to WCG (World Community Grid). It says fetching work schedule but deferred. When I try to add the WCG as a project it says this is not compatible with BOINC.

Boinc says it is connected to localhost. Despite a live internet connection. It never asked me for a WCG logon and password. And I can’t find where to specify these amongst any of the menus.

This sort of pain just makes it hard for people who don’t have a lot of time or tech skills to want to get on the grid. I will also stop recommending this to people I know as well as the visitors to my blog. It is just too hard.

It ought to be as simple as: Download the app, install it, and it just runs. The end user should not even NEED to have a WCG account - they just need to know and agree to the fact that this app donates processor cycle to x y z charities. This removes as much of the sign-up inertial barriers to installation as possible.

And then we come to the actual technical install process. Does this really have to be this mysterious and painful? Is this a problem with the programmers not realizing the limitations of the end users? Or is the technology just so complex there is no way to make it simpler and more obvious?

The simple UI is too simple. the advanced UI is too advanced. There are not useful messages. There are too many project options with no obvious structure/conceptual hierarchy.

Eg: is set@home a WCGproject or not? The BOINC agent is branded with WCG and IBM, why is there then also a WCG project I can apparently choose to work on or not? These are questions an average end user will ask, and be confused by. What makes sense to the developers from a technical viewpoint may not make any sense to the end user.

There is no clear idea of how the agent works with the server and what I need to do to facilitate what aspect of that. All too often I found myself wondering "what do I do now?" There are not useful error messages.

My profession is working with software systems, workflow processes, UI concepts, information architecture - and BOINC is too hard/mysterious even for me. So where does that leave the average user?

I guess it will be good bye after the UD agent stops working then.

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Side issue: The BOINC installer did not uninstall the UD agent. There is also no obvious Uninstall UD agent thing either in the UD folder or the Add/Remove Programs panel. UD agent still starts in preference of Boinc.