Maybe this should be in the "Off Topic" section, I am not sure.

I need advice and your feelings on this!

I get annoyed when I download an installation program which is only a few hundred kb in size only to find that when it runs it downloads a larger package containing the actual program.

All my life I have released full install packages, that is you download the entire program and install it. But now I find that I am struggling with the idea of using an Installation Loader for my own stuff.

When I submit my software to sites such as tucows it takes about 2 months for the listing to appear (because I don't pay them for priority listing) by which time I have released an update which may resolve a serious error or bug. The people that download from tucows get an old version because tucows have there own copy they don't link to my copy. If I update my listing on tucows it takes another 2 months to appear.

Right now I am considering using an installer that downloads the latest version from my web site, which is exactly what I hate doing. It means that customers download a smaller install file which then goes off and downloads a further 2mb.

Does anyone have any thoughts? Is this sort of thing generally acceptable?