Re: Auto-launch Installer From dmg
Re: Auto-launch Installer From dmg
- Subject: Re: Auto-launch Installer From dmg
- From: Luke Bellandi <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 16:46:40 -0700
On May 18, 2007, at 3:43 PM, Michael Watson wrote:
I understand that the standard Installer.app will run, but it's not
the look and feel of the application that startles users, it's the
simple fact that a software installer came out of nowhere.
Yes, there is choice to install. But that doesn't mean it feels fine
to click a link and see an installer appear after several seconds of
disconnect or more. Think about the delay on an average machine:
1. User clicks link for small download. (Less than 1 minute.)
2. Download completes in, say, 35 seconds.
3. Image mount operation takes 5-10 seconds to complete.
4. Installer.app launches in 2-5 seconds. (Depending on system use/
available RAM factors, this will vary wildly.)
In this scenario, the user clicked a link, and about a minute later,
an application launched. Hmm, kinda startling and frightening for
the average end-user. (In the sense that it came out of nowhere and
wasn't specifically requested.)
I tend to disagree with that point. I suspect most of the links that
users click on will say "Download and Install MyGreatApp.app".
Scenario B is worse:
1. User clicks link for non-small download. (More than 10 minutes.)
2. Download completes in, say, 12 minutes.
3. Image mount operation takes 5-30 seconds to complete.
4. Installer.app launches in 2-5 seconds. (Depending on system use/
available RAM factors, this will vary wildly.)
With the larger download, there's even more cognitive/memory
disconnect between what happened and what's happening/going to
happen; the effect is multilpied.
You make a good point. We like the simplicity of the "click the link -
> install the app" flow, but the time in between is the great
unknown. Though hopefully you find some solace in Safari's (or your
other favorite browser's) downloads window tracking the time-remaining
for the download of a particular disk image.
So there is, in fact, some continuity here even though it may not be
directly in front of the user's face.
- Luke
--
m
On 18 May, 2007, at 17:45, Peter Bierman wrote:
It will not launch Jim Bob's XYZ Installer, it will only launch
Apple's Installer.app.
Hopefully the standard Installer.app either looks familiar, or is
self-explanatory enough not to frighten users. I think the
Installer's UI is pretty clear, but I agree that it's possible to
construct web pages that trigger this behavior unexpectedly. In
that case, the user needs to decide for themselves if they really
want to step through some mysterious installer package that they
weren't expecting.
-pmb
At 5:14 PM -0400 5/18/07, Michael Watson wrote:
I didn't say it was dangerous, but because it's so non-standard
that it really feels a bit unsettling to a lot of users. Click a
link and a program you've never seen before launches? At least
you're used to Mail jumping to the front--after all, you're
familiar with Mail. But if you've never used Jim Bob's XYZ
Installer before, that might feel pretty foreign.
Just thoughts and observations from doing customer support with
things like installers and disk images.
--
m
On 18 May, 2007, at 16:55, Peter Bierman wrote:
Actually, we've gone to great lengths to make sure that's safe.
In some configurations, it's possible to click on a link in a web
page and have the link open as a new installer window.
This isn't any different than clicking on a mailto: link to send
an email, or an FTP URL that opens in the Finder.
-pmb
At 3:40 PM -0400 5/18/07, Michael Watson wrote:
I can't say I'd ever want to see clicking a link result in the
automatic launch of an installer application.
Are you sure you honestly want to do this? It's /very/ non-
standard and really kind of frightening for end users.
--
mikey
On 18 May, 2007, at 14:17, Chris Cooksey wrote:
When the user clicks on the link in Safari and clicks ok to the
security
question, both files are downloaded and unzipped, both dmgs are
mounted, but
only one of them goes on to auto-launch the .pkg in the
Installer.
One of the images contains only the .pkg file. The other image
contains
other files in addition to the .pkg file. Other than that, I
can see no
significant difference.
Is the presence of the other files preventing the auto-launch
of the
Installer? If so, is there a way to work around that?
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