I'm wondering why people are praising the way you install apps on macOS.
-
I'm wondering why people are praising the way you install apps on macOS. Sure, the idea that you can just drag and drop the app bundle into the applications folder is kinda neat.
But, IMHO, the user experience is pretty poor. You basically get no feedback. Did the copying succeed? Is it still ongoing? How do I actually start the "installed" app? Do I need to double-click the app icon? Why is the app not in my dock?
@haeckerfelix dmg files are a remnant of a distant macOS past, back when zip would fail to properly include the resource forks. This has been irrelevant for more than 20 years.
The proper way to distribute a mac app is:
- zip the app file
- have it detect that it’s running from ~/Downloads, and offer to move itself to /Applications.And I’m saying this as someone whose daily job involved setting up dmg files with custom background and carefully positioned icons. But that was 20 years ago.
-
@nclm and you unmount it by dragging the "desktop icon" for the app to the trash.
From a user POV, why do I have to “unmount” the “installer” for my app to begin with??
So intuitive!
@haeckerfelix @nclm every time I see a new Mac user who has just installed some apps, they leave every single DMG mounted and they don't even shut down their computer as they're all Macbook users who would rather close the lid into standby every single time.
-
I'm wondering why people are praising the way you install apps on macOS. Sure, the idea that you can just drag and drop the app bundle into the applications folder is kinda neat.
But, IMHO, the user experience is pretty poor. You basically get no feedback. Did the copying succeed? Is it still ongoing? How do I actually start the "installed" app? Do I need to double-click the app icon? Why is the app not in my dock?
@haeckerfelix macos: apps are just "files". you copy them to your filesystem.
linux guy: everything is a file? who came up with this bonkers concept. thats way too uncomplicated for me to understand.
-
I'm wondering why people are praising the way you install apps on macOS. Sure, the idea that you can just drag and drop the app bundle into the applications folder is kinda neat.
But, IMHO, the user experience is pretty poor. You basically get no feedback. Did the copying succeed? Is it still ongoing? How do I actually start the "installed" app? Do I need to double-click the app icon? Why is the app not in my dock?
@haeckerfelix indeed, this way of installing apps on macos always baffled me. I guess brew helps a ton.
-
G gnome@floss.social shared this topic
-
I'm wondering why people are praising the way you install apps on macOS. Sure, the idea that you can just drag and drop the app bundle into the applications folder is kinda neat.
But, IMHO, the user experience is pretty poor. You basically get no feedback. Did the copying succeed? Is it still ongoing? How do I actually start the "installed" app? Do I need to double-click the app icon? Why is the app not in my dock?
@haeckerfelix
Another issue is that drag and drop is an action that can only be performed by advanced and valid people. Old people struggle with the difference between click and double click and often can't do drag and drop. Also it's not easily discoverable it's something you have to learn. So overall it's a bad UX. -
I’m excited to see the massive progress that Linux has made with the Flathub/Flatpak ecosystem over the last few years.
I don’t think there’s anything comparable for desktop systems out there. The macOS App Store and the Microsoft Store are nothing in comparison. Want to install Thunderbird or Steam? Well, tough luck. You’ll have to figure it out for yourself.
It's time for Microsoft and Apple to catch up. Not the other way around.
@haeckerfelix indeed. Even far-reaching software like OBS Studio works impressively good on flatpak nowadays.
-
I’m excited to see the massive progress that Linux has made with the Flathub/Flatpak ecosystem over the last few years.
I don’t think there’s anything comparable for desktop systems out there. The macOS App Store and the Microsoft Store are nothing in comparison. Want to install Thunderbird or Steam? Well, tough luck. You’ll have to figure it out for yourself.
It's time for Microsoft and Apple to catch up. Not the other way around.
@haeckerfelix for now the only OSs that take advantage of this OTB are the universal blue ones.
On the others you have to deal with: what is flatpak/snap/rpm/deb/appimage? ecc ecc
even on fedora... (fedora flatpaks exists sadly)
which is not ideal for new users at all.Hoping in future this will change!
-
I’m excited to see the massive progress that Linux has made with the Flathub/Flatpak ecosystem over the last few years.
I don’t think there’s anything comparable for desktop systems out there. The macOS App Store and the Microsoft Store are nothing in comparison. Want to install Thunderbird or Steam? Well, tough luck. You’ll have to figure it out for yourself.
It's time for Microsoft and Apple to catch up. Not the other way around.
@haeckerfelix I say it's time to not care about Microsoft and Apple. They need to be left behind for there horrible products and services not to mention how awful the treat their customers.
-
I'm wondering why people are praising the way you install apps on macOS. Sure, the idea that you can just drag and drop the app bundle into the applications folder is kinda neat.
But, IMHO, the user experience is pretty poor. You basically get no feedback. Did the copying succeed? Is it still ongoing? How do I actually start the "installed" app? Do I need to double-click the app icon? Why is the app not in my dock?
you are omiting so many things and I have to wonder, are you using macos currently?
I have to say, its the same stuff with windows and linux. it does weird stuff, its just that we are used to all of it
-
@nclm and you unmount it by dragging the "desktop icon" for the app to the trash.
From a user POV, why do I have to “unmount” the “installer” for my app to begin with??
So intuitive!
@haeckerfelix @nclm They still do this? I remember when I brought some files on a USB drive to a Mac user, and after they finished copying it, they dragged the USB icon to trash, and I went "Don't!", because I thought they were going to erase the drive.
