This seems obvious, but it is a major pain point. If your internet goes down, or if you are trying to install software on an air-gapped machine (a PC not connected to the internet for security reasons), a web installer is 100% useless.
Instead, its sole purpose is to connect to the internet, download the necessary installation files from a remote server, and immediately execute the installation process on your machine. web installer
The is a marvel of modern logistics. It saves developers server costs, saves users initial download time, and ensures nobody ever runs a vulnerable, outdated version of an app again. However, it trades storage space for bandwidth and introduces a dependency on the cloud that can burn users with data caps or unstable internet. This seems obvious, but it is a major pain point
[============------------------------------------------------------] 22% Downloading environment... (auth.so) The is a marvel of modern logistics
A "Web Installer" (often called a "stub" or "bootstrapper") is a small executable file—usually just a few kilobytes or megabytes—that you download to initiate a software installation. Unlike a traditional offline installer, it does not contain the actual program files. Instead, it reaches out to the developer’s servers, grabs the latest version of the software, and installs it on the fly.
Scene 6 — The Signal's Origin