Grr - installing Blender

I feel like if a person has a problem with 7 clicks maybe 3d is not really for them… :smiley: :smiley:

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If you use the Windows Store version of Blender (similar to Flatpack on Linux), you literally don’t have to care about this as it auto updates and install/uninstall is basically one click (just like Flatpack).

:man_shrugging:

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This got me thinking how many clicks do I do for installing Blender on my Linux Mint box. I’m a IT Manager, so for me Windows is nothing more than a slow death by a 1000 cuts. :wink:

I download the Blender file from blender.org - one click
I copy it from my Downloads dir to my ~/graphics dir - 2 clicks
I double click the file to extract it - 2 clicks?
I right click on the Cinnamon laucher to edit it - one click
I change the launcher to point to the new Blender - 2 clicks

Now once I have done this setup, I only need one click to start Blender and use it.

So 8 clicks. :smiley: There is probably a better way but I’m ok with this as I only have to do this once for each version. And I can keep as many different versions around as I like.

P.S. No command line was harmed in this message.

Write a script to do half the heavily lifting? Depending on your file manager you could probably set the script as a run option for certain files. Downside is the amount of effort involved up front, but in theory it would eventually pay for itself.

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I literally type one command, and that’s it. I hear what people are saying about the keypresses to type, but I can type a hell of a lot faster than I can click about the screen.

I should have done a “timed” test. But that would be unfair. Linux would win by an order of magnitude (even for the lates 4.2).

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You are just comparing apples and oranges by comparing a manual download and install with a packagemanager update. If you for example compare it to updating it via Microsoft Store, Steam or Blender launcher your terminal method is just more work.

That’s 22 clicks. 22 is more than 7 if my math is correct

I challenge you to pull up a terminal and type “blender” faster than i can double-click an icon on my desktop. :wink:

And then you set it as a cronjob and forget about it.

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Or… having aliases b34, b35, b36… :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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Now, now, that’s not fair. He is installing Blender, you are just running it. :wink: Of course, with a launcher on Linux, I only need one click to run Blender so it’s twice as fast. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Okay then add one tar -tJf blender-..-linux-x64.tar.xz as installation instruction. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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Not necessary on Arch using pacman (or an AUR helper if you are installing the nightly).

For the main Blender updates, it gets wrapped up in my whole system upgrade (aliased to “upall”) anyway, so I don’t need to do anything extra.

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With this batch file I download blender portable and then drag and drop the dowloaded file on top of it.
This will clear my existing blender-4.2 folder and then use 7zip to extract and move the files and folders one level up, then it will delete the empty folder.
You need 7zip installed, then you copy 7z.dll and 7z.exe from the installation folder and put them next to the batch file.
(I have a shortcut pointing to blender-4.2\blender.exe on my desktop)

@ECHO OFF
ECHO %~1
set BLENDER_DIR=%cd%\blender-4.2

RD /S /Q "%BLENDER_DIR%"
MD "%BLENDER_DIR%"

7z.exe x %~1 -o"%BLENDER_DIR%" -r

move "%BLENDER_DIR%"\%~n1\*.* "%BLENDER_DIR%"

for /d %%a in ("%BLENDER_DIR%"\%~n1\*) do move "%%~fa" "%BLENDER_DIR%"

RD /S /Q "%BLENDER_DIR%"\%~n1

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