Review - Windows Install

[joepavitt]

Given the install instructions available at https://flowfuse.com/docs/install/introduction/ go form a clean Windows image and install and setup FlowFuse.

Windows represents a very low portion (2%) of our running FlowFuse EE instances, however, having spoken to our Sales/Customer team, it is the most highly requested operating system. We currently take a strong position to dissuading users from Windows, and steering towards Linux. This is creating bottlenecks internally in our customer's organisations as they then need permission from IT departments, etc. in order to setup Linux VMs and environments.

The conclusion from Rob (notes in a comment below) was that "If we can get FlowFuse easy to get up and running on Windows, our customers would use it"

Considerations

• Each step taken should be recorded
• Any frustrations/friction should be highlighted and documented
• The full process should be timed, ideally with rough timestamps along the too so that we understand where time is being spent.

Areas of Friction

• When arriving at the "Install" documentation for FlowFuse, there is no clear CTA for installing on Windows.
  • If I happen to then click the first option, Docker, I'm presented with a statement, "The following instructions assume you are running Docker on a Linux or MacOS host system.", with no clear CTA for Windows users.

[joepavitt]

Chatting with @robmarcer - notes:

• We often talk to customers that have already setup FF
• Maybe people try and fail for the Windows installs
• Risk of survivorship bias in our 98% of paid customers running on Linux
• What is the goal for Windows install?
  • Rob not convinced it's even possible to run "well" on Windows
  • Lots of our customers use Windows, often say they can't use "Linux"
    • "If we can get FlowFuse easy to get up and running on Windows, our customers would use it

[ppawlowski]

Lots of our customers use Windows, often say they can't use "Linux" If they can't use a Linux distro, is an approach with docker-ce via WSL possible for them? Same question for a potential VM solution with Linux on top of Windows HyperV.