So a bit of context, I've been doing testing for V.E.L.O.C.I.T.Y. Drone and initially, I just copied over a binary, but I wanted it to be a bit easier to setup, so I thought I'd make an installer for it, so it can register as a system tray app. So naturally, I looked up what's the best installer and up popped Inno Setup 7. So I used it and it worked fine I guess, then I saw they apparently charge $155 for individuals, up to $1195 for unlimited users and that locks you to a version, if you want a new version, you need to buy a new license...
So per my usual, I built my own. It's smaller (tool), faster and completely cross-platform, using zstd with adjustable compression ratio, dependency checking, bundling, CI/CD updating, Delta-Updating, adding MSI compliance for managed deployments too and a few more nice to have features.
I'm releasing it under Apache 2.0, so it's actually free and completely open-source, use it commercially, start the next Microsoft and release a billion copies using it, you don't owe me a penny.
My reason for creating it, is like so many other times, I found that the industry gatekeeps actually making money out of software, tooling should be free, so the real products can be made, without any hidden fees.
So my question to everyone is, do you need an installer? And have you been burnt in the past by hidden costs from 'open-source' releases that charge you once you hit a revenue floor?
