x/website: revise download page (system requirements for stable/archived versions)

[nathany]

"the official 1.4 download doesn't work on Macs. You need to use the special 1.4 download link on the build-from-source page. It would be nice if either the official 1.4 download were updated, or if another one were added with an annotation on the downloads page." - @robpike #18545 (comment)

related issue: #16352

[nathany]

Should Go 1.4-bootstrap be added under "Stable versions" so it is visible without scanning through the archived versions?

Perhaps the download page should also say something about macOS Sierra requiring Go 1.7 or better or Go 1.4-bootstrap?

[ALTree]

I don't think a prominent link to go1.4-bootstrap and/or notes about Sierra-bootstrapping requiring a specific version are things that belong in our main download page.

The only reason you might want to download go1.4 is for bootstrapping on a system for which we don't distribute binaries; and for this reason links to go1.4-bootstrap should stay in the 'compiling-from-source' doc page, and only there.

[nathany]

The only reason you might want to download go1.4 is for bootstrapping on a system for which we don't distribute binaries; and for this reason links to go1.4-bootstrap should stay in the 'compiling-from-source' doc page, and only there.

Makes sense to me.

Currently the featured downloads indicate system requirements, such as "OS X 10.8 or later".

Perhaps the tables below for stable and archived version should also include system requirements, including an upper bound if applicable.

e.g. go1.7.6.darwin-amd64.pkg could say macOS 10.8 to 10.11 -- to address the issue that it won't work on newer versions of macOS

Also, some older versions of Go may work on older operating systems -- which may be useful information for some people.

[nathany]

A few other minor revisions to the download page:

• "Apple macOS" instead of OS X, as it was renamed. I've heard this even applies to past versions, though I haven't been able to verify that.
• "Intel/AMD" or "x86" 64-bit processor instead of only Intel

[ALTree]

This two

• OS X -> macOS (the official name was changed)
• reword "Intel 64-bit" since it looks like we want an Intel processor (but we just want x86)

seems reasonable. You'll still need @broady approval, I think.

[ALTree]

Perhaps the tables below for stable and archived version should also include system requirements, including an upper bound if applicable

I don't see how we could add this information to that table without cluttering it, though. It's already quite packed and some of the requirements are much more wordy to write down that the OSX ones.

[bradfitz]

@broady, feel free to move this to Unreleased or Go 1.10 as you'd like.

[nathany]

Sorry for not contributing these minor changes yet.

Are they tied to the release cycle?

[bradfitz]

@nathany, currently. There's a long-running desire to decouple Go release branches from the website (the website runs off the release's godoc binary), but that hasn't happened.

So this is probably out of scope for Go 1.9 at this point.

[StudioEtrange]

Still need a "real" binary release of 1.4.4, for some packaging system, some fast bootstraping purpose (without having to build go 1.4.4), or use gonative+gox tools on macos, and so on.

I dont know which problem does it generate to make a binary release instead of just source release ?
Is it a decision based only on some guess of what people needs ?

Please just release a binary go1.4.4 !

[PaulReiber]

Please just release a binary go1.4.4 !

...this isn't as easy as a push of a button? Seriously? ...that's so 20th century...

…

On Wed, Nov 8, 2017 at 7:43 PM, StudioEtrange ***@***.***> wrote: Still need a "real" binary release of 1.4.4, for some packaging system, some fast bootstraping (without having to build go 1.4.4), or use gonative+gox tools on macos, and so on. I dont know which problem does it generate to make a binary release instead of just source release ? Is it a decision based only on some guess of what people needs ? Please just release a binary go1.4.4 ! — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#18554 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AADlQOpCgpxpQqger3rWrx8LmIUG8q-uks5s0nTqgaJpZM4LdTR-> .

[broady]

@StudioEtrange @PaulReiber
Please, move that discussion back to Issue #16352.

[StudioEtrange]

...this isn't as easy as a push of a button? Seriously? ...that's so 20th
century...

I take your point as ironic.
I think/know there is a whole validation process, unit test and on so on in play. And even if it's not simple, I guess the whole process is automatized in some ways.

But i still dont know why the decision to not take this path have been taken.

As I read comments here and on issue #16352, people first talking about making a release. And not clear why it has been stopped.

Only

The only reason you might want to download go1.4 is for bootstrapping on a system for which we don't distribute binaries; and for this reason links to go1.4-bootstrap should stay in the 'compiling-from-source' doc page, and only there.

And this a kind of guess of use case of what people needs.
My point is that it's better to make a release (if the release and publication chain works without too many hassle) without guessing all the possibility user will find by itself

[nathany]

FreeBSD system requirements are changing:
https://golang.org/cl/64910/

The download page doesn’t have requirements for BSD at all.

[nathany]

Related issue #10147

[bradfitz]

@nathany, the install.html was already updated to say "FreeBSD 10.3 or later" in the e76ae8a you linked to.

And the top of the https://golang.org/dl/ says:

After downloading a binary release suitable for your system, please follow the installation instructions.

... which links to https://tip.golang.org/doc/install , which says:

FreeBSD 10.3 or later

So the information isn't entirely absent. We just don't have a huge bubble for downloading FreeBSD like we do for the top 3 OSes. I think that's fine. Very few if any FreeBSD users will be using 9.3.

[nathany]

So the requirements are on https://tip.golang.org/doc/install but not https://tip.golang.org/dl/. Might not be the most intuitive since the download page tends to come first.

Also related: #23011

Go 1.10 is the last release that will run on OS X [sic] 10.8 Mountain Lion. Go 1.11 will require OS X [sic] 10.9 Mavericks or later.

[nathany]

Maybe a more substantial redesign of those pages will come along with #18580 (homebrew/chocolatey) or golang/cwg#11 (golang.org).

Whether or not it makes sense to suggest older version of Go to people on older operating systems, I don't know. It just seems like the giant list of archived Go versions could be more useful if system requirements were for each Go version.