[Moderator] Re: OT: Installing Apps
[Moderator] Re: OT: Installing Apps
- Subject: [Moderator] Re: OT: Installing Apps
- From: Scott Anguish <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:31:56 -0400
this has (as the title clearly indicates) become off-topic. time to
take this off cocoa-dev.
I'd suggest the installer-dev mailing list.
scott
moderator
On 10-Sep-08, at 3:41 PM, Steven W Riggins wrote:
I'd venture to add "Disabled"
I for one, being a Mac user since Feb, 1984, am dismayed at the
current state of delivering Mac software. My mom never, ever
figures out the drag to apps thing. But she does understand "Double
click to install" *for whatever reason*
Often apps end up on the Desktop, or lord knows where.
Leaving the poor user aside, look at how apps are bundled now.
Regardless of how they come into existence on a user's machine, they
often carry baggage, such as Spotlight indexers, QuickLook plugins,
etc. I'm all for the ease of use, but what if one of these "extras"
is causing a ton of grief? The poor user is left with disabling the
entire application by deleting it. Or uninstalling. Or whatever.
As for updating, I like Sparkle because once the application is on
the machine, it is easy to update. However, I feel Apple has
totally, 100% dropped the ball on how users manage software on the
Macintosh.
I don't want an "App Store" if you will - but a single, consistent
way to get *software* onto your machine, and off, or disable
*aspects* of the software is needed.
I used the term software because many products, such as my iPhoto
plugin, can't be drag n drop. Or they have startup scripts, etc.
As for disk images, when I mention disk images to users at our user
group, eyes glaze over as the concept of a disk inside of a file on
the desktop that when double clicked makes a new icon that is the
real disk no wait its a virtual disk of the data inside the image
what did you say ahhhhhhhhhhh just let me get your damned software :).
This is not an issue of age, either. While in World of Warcraft,
which has addons that are (mostly) installed by dragging and
dropping one folder within another, I've run across many teens who
just don't have a clue what they need to be doing. They end up
using an application that installs it for them. Really, it is just
drag n drop. But hey.
I personally think that Apple needs to tweak the OS to make it so
this whole install/uninstall process is not necessary, somehow. In
other words, if i have to rely on some lackey to remove startup
scripts and muck with my OS in other nefarious ways, something is
wrong. The OS should be marshalling this and the uninstall is
essentially an undo.
If an install process needs to muck with the contents of a file, say
a config file, something is *broken* at a deeper level.
Things are broken on so many levels and because of that, we've
adapted to the state we're in. Things need to change, somehow.
On Sep 10, 2008, at 11:00 AM, Brad O'Hearne wrote:
The install / uninstall situation on Macs is unarguably out of step
with this philosophy. The majority of users care about two things:
"installed" or "uninstalled".
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