1) zhiwei, if what you mean is a default install of Boinc which would start to crunch without the user having to know about it this is against WCG's policy. Contributing to WCG must be a voluntary act and, anyway, you have to register. Even if it is for good intentions such a program installation would fall into the trojan category.

2) For members with slower machines or current ones connected only a few hours a day, with the Rice project which runs the same fixed time for all machines, fast or slow, "1 or 2 hours a day is enough to complete a task in that period" too.

Cheers. Jean.

The challenge may be that installing Windows software is easier, in most cases, than installing *nix software. *nix will always be challenged for greater penetration into the user market until software installs become simple.

If a developer makes the decision to fully support the user install of their software on all *nix systems, we will have a product that will truly penetrate the *nix barrier. Boinc is trying to do this, but will continue to generate support headaches until the software install gets easier.

For example, I installed WCG Boinc on Windows which only needed me to click some buttons. While I have computer skills, I have not had to use them. As for *nix, I see support requests in the fora where users have to download other (what the heck is that) software to get Boinc installed. It is not about user-friendly (I can live with unfriendly), it's about just being able to get it installed at all. The technical skills needed to make this all happen are hard to allocate and are also expensive. You can find people with technical knowledge on W2k, WXP, W2003 and WV. There may not be anyone who knows the internals of every version of *nix.

Hello zhiwei,

The idea seems novel, but the reality is it's not new and there are very good reasons for not doing it. Sometimes what seems like a good idea is really a bad a idea in hindsight. "Hindsight is best served with foresight", I think that is right.

The World Community Grid like any respectable organization has an image to maintain while supporting the mission goals as efficiently/effectively as possible. It would not be responsible to mass release or pre-install this software on the end users computer. It's not a socially responsible thing to be doing.

Perhaps, putting a simple piece of glossy paper in with each new computer advertising the World Community Grid to give the end user the option to download and install the software on their own? I don't know..

I figure given enough time and experience things eventually work themselves for the better, so long as it's not unreasonable forced.