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How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

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Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#291

Post by kelnos »

microtonal wrote: post #103
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Developers can distribute .app's inside of .zip files, and many do, but this can result in users just running the .app inside of their downloads folder. And then this causes problems if they ever decide to clean out their Downloads folder. The DMGs are a clever way to (A) make sure the app gets to the proper location while simultaneously (B) teaching the user about what's actually happening on their computer. As I sa…

Developers can distribute .app's inside of .zip files, and many do, but this can result in users just running the .app inside of their downloads folder. And then this causes problems if they ever decide to clean out their Downloads folder. Some applications offer to move themselves to the /Applications folder when started the first time outside /Applications or ~/Applications . Though in general, it would be better i…

Hell, why doesn't Finder do this? If you try to run a .app from a .dmg, it should pop up a dialog asking you if you want Finder to move it to /Applications for you and run it from there.

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#292

Post by int_19h »

Smoosh wrote: post #271
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This system worked so much better when the Applications folder was placed in the Dock by default, and everyone used that folder launch applications (which weren't common enough to keep in the Dock directly). It was actually a really beautiful synergy—you install applications by copying them to a folder, and launch them from that folder. Same way you'd acquire and open files. Lovely. Then Apple ruined it in Lion with…

In even earlier days, applications didn't need to be installed at all. You just ran them from wherever they were . Of course, it made sense to store them somewhere together, and you could cause yourself problems if you put applications onto disks you then ejected . But the current system is clearly influenced by the UNIX underpinnings, and I'm not sure that the average user fully "gets it". though preferences files w…

You can still run them from wherever they are. The problem is that users do that once, exit, and then later forget where the app was.

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#293

Post by int_19h »

impendia wrote: post #44
t0mas88 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still curious why everyone thinks Zoom "just works" while others don't. Because in an enterprise context it is often hard to download an executable and run it with sufficient permissions. While Google and Microsoft both offer a product that "just works" with only a browser. What makes Zoom more "just works" than that?

I'm a college professor, and I'll share my perspective. For one, Zoom did just work. (At least as a participant, rather than an organizer.) I tried it out, and it immediately worked. It did what all of us were expecting, with no fuss. I also tried MS Teams. It seems designed with a different philosophy: that you use the software to do many different things, and you want them all integrated. (For example, it posted my…

Teams specifically is the spiritual successor to Skype for Business / Lync / Office Communicator - its main benefit is integrating with Outlook, Exchange, OneNote, and SharePoint. If it's not deployed with that in mind, that's a lot of wasted effort, IMO.

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#295

Post by zuppy »

lukevp wrote: post #33
gnud wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Teams works for "guest users", but they have to be let into the meeting by a "real" user. Also, I think it's possible for companies to disallow guest users on their team instance.

Teams live can work without logins but you have to make the feed public with a hidden link.

teams has another issue though: when someone speaks, it cuts the sound for the other people speaking in the same time. in theory this sounds good, but many times it will cut the sound of the active speaker. yes, i think this can be managed with group mute, but zoom doesn’t have this “feature”.

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#296

Post by anon102010 »

jeroenhd wrote: post #89

As someone who's never used or seen Zoom in action, what's pulling people into Zoom that's not already available in other tools (Hangouts Meet, MS Teams) and even works without installing anything (such as Jitsi)? Based on what I've seen, there's just so much hostile behaviour by the company (including lying about meeting HIPAA e2e requirements!) and the fact that their _official client_ had parts removed by the macO…

The meme that HIPPA requires e2e is so ridiculous - it is pretty clear that very few people actually deal with HIPPA stuff.

Zoom (if you need HIPPA) can set you up with it - but you WILL lose a bunch of features (zoom by default has features that are not HIPPA compatible) - so make sure you need HIPPA before paying for it.

If anything medicine is almost anti-e2e. Everything is copied and copied between one system and another (billing, lab systems, imaging systems etc). Seriously, medicine is in many cases very fragmented, so the number of medical practice groups that need copies of your details / visit details etc is high just to bill you (and you may end up with 5 bills for one visit - which may be 4-5 systems behind the scenes).

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#298

Post by scelerat »

I have a friend who has some intimate knowledge of MacOS installation software who refuses to use Zoom. "It's not merely because it uses the same install patterns as Russian malware," this person told me, "no; it's personal."

Seriously, despite this person's aversion to anything Google, Hangouts ends up being the one tolerable exception.

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#299

Post by microtonal »

kelnos wrote: post #291
microtonal wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Developers can distribute .app's inside of .zip files, and many do, but this can result in users just running the .app inside of their downloads folder. And then this causes problems if they ever decide to clean out their Downloads folder. Some applications offer to move themselves to the /Applications folder when started the first time outside /Applications or ~/Applications . Though in general, it would be better i…

Hell, why doesn't Finder do this? If you try to run a .app from a .dmg, it should pop up a dialog asking you if you want Finder to move it to /Applications for you and run it from there.

I agree, that would be awesome!

Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

#300

Post by saagarjha »

adtac wrote: post #290
luto wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jitsi, Google Meet, bigbluebutton -- anything can runs in a browser tab and is more or less confined within it.

I wouldn't be surprised if Zoom suddenly started exploiting browser zero days to force install things "for your own good"

Good thing that this is somewhat difficult to do ;)
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