Its not that huge of an issue. PHP6 is still miles away. If a proper solution can be found in time and the relevant people in charge keep the communication channels open it may very well get bundled. That being said getting the installer is not that much of a challenge. As a matter of fact its not much harder than using the installer later on. So anyone who can make use of the installer, can also install the installer :-)
No it is not a big issue, we'll have to make it really clear how to get PEAR,
Greg's phar archive will certainly be a big plus.
What is hardly understandable is that Pierre made the decision without any prior
announcement/discussion.
Arnaud.