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Netbeans installation should provide the option of letting the users choose user's user directory. The IDE should use that userdir than always using the default one.
Personally I don't think the installer should confuse new users with such a question. People who are experienced with the product and know they need a different userdir for some reason can specify it in their netbeans.conf or similar. Or they can run from a ZIP file for that matter.
There is an option: "-userdir" switch. See http://www.netbeans.org/kb/50/using-netbeans/configuring.html
This goes against the goal to provide good out-of-the-experience. Default works for most of the case and there is an option how to change it (add parameter or edit netbeans.conf file)
It is also covered in FAQ: http://wiki.netbeans.info/wiki/view/NetBeansUserFAQ in Configuration section.
It may be good out of the box to not ask this option. But as a user, my experience has been, 1) eclipse asks this and i am happy about it when i use eclipse. 2) Remember this is opensource and people may like to try different versions. For some reason, when i use multiple versions, i have to be NB aware enough to change the userdir in the conf file. A bad option for the end user. 3) Typically a user doesn't want some tool installed to populate their hard drive without their explicit approval of where it is doing. This is so because, when the user uninstalls, it leaves these files in the userdir. A naive user wouldn't remember where the files were being stored and they may linger on the machine for a long time. Having said all that.. An option of userdir, can already populate the default user dir, and all that the user does is one more click to say next. If you merge this user dir screen with other configuration screen like, jdk home option or some other option, even the extra click is not needed. I don't think giving the user an easy option to change userdir if needed, wouldn't deviate from the goal of good out-of-the-box experience. I have reopened so that you would consider what i had to say. If you still think it is best the way it is, you may close the bug.
Moving to the next generation installer. We'll take care of this by 6.0.
Removing from M04 targets, since the proper way to implement it depends on some changes on the IDE side.
Issues not assigned to any milestone should not have a responsible engineer.
Jano, what would you say about this?
Regular NB users of FCS releases should not care about userdir. Therefor we should not add it into the installer.
This said - WONTFIX. :(
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 210988 ***