I'll be honest given the article title I was hoping for a detailed rant on the complex installation process that most Windows apps hide, but this was also a nice read. And as a user of Raycast they do indeed have a very nice installation background.
As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program
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Re: As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program
#32It's fine for installing, but uninstalling is madness: Windows uninstallers try to clean up all the registry and user profile stuff they install. Mac apps seem to just leave stuff behind in Local Settings or Caches forever? Containers are not such a bad idea.
I would expect local settings and caches to remain. They are your files. Caches I would expect to be cleaned up by some operating system service. This, of course, relies on the app putting stuff in expected places and not just in random places.
Re: As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program
#33It's fine for installing, but uninstalling is madness: Windows uninstallers try to clean up all the registry and user profile stuff they install. Mac apps seem to just leave stuff behind in Local Settings or Caches forever? Containers are not such a bad idea.
Counterpoint: you reinstall something later and all your setting and preferences are still there. It’s a classic cloud vs disk debate about where and who should persist and own the data. Lately I think it’s kinda refreshing that it’s entirely on your disk and up to you.
Maybe the correct UX could be to list the locations of settings data, their size and ask the user whether they want to leave them, put them aside in a dedicated folder ("the attic", "the basement" or whatever), or remove them
Re: As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program
#34Why not .pkg (next, next, installer)? For the past week, I've been tweaking my startup's CLI to install as a .pkg, satisfy Apple signing, and everything that goes along with that. I've often wondered why so many companies opt for the icon method.
Inertia? It's the standardized method on macOS. Macs have been this way at least since early 90s. InstallShield likewise had been normal on Windows since early 90s, so the modern MSI installers feel more normal and straightforward to Windows users.
Re: As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program
#35I'm just glad I'm not the only one who says damage in their head for .dmg files
Re: As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program
#36I'll never forget the first time that dreadful window appeared. I was frustrated for 10min, eventually turning to my phone to search for what to do.
Happened to me last year. My wife always taunted me because I have been anti-Apple since they hermetically sealed their iMacs so you couldn't stick in RAM with talking to a "genius". "It just works!" she says. I dunno, I guess I didn't think an "Install" button needed reworking but here we are, not an ugly instruction or tooltip in sight. Also Apple: I bought my son an old refurbished iPad for watching Netflix on lon…
That should be your hint that the OS version is too old to be connecting to random services on the internet.
Re: As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program
#37Is the quote in the title a reference to something?
Yeah, it's about how Windows has .msi installers, whereas for MacOS it's a .dmg where you copy the exec binary (which itself is a folder) into the /Applications folder.
Apples and Oranges. MSI compares to .pkg (eww) installers on the mac side, not .dmg.
Re: As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program
#38No one will ever convince me that the Mac approach for installing programs is intuitive or good UX. The whole argument of: "But if you think about it in ... way, it makes sense" is a terrible argument.
No one will ever convince me that literally anything about Windows isn't utterly insane.
Re: As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program
#39No one will ever convince me that the Mac approach for installing programs is intuitive or good UX. The whole argument of: "But if you think about it in ... way, it makes sense" is a terrible argument.
It's not a good method, as well as approving tens of following security popups, entering System Settings, finding some entries, allowing something that the user doesn't even understand, entering passwords after each mouse click.
MacOS experience is t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e and it's getting worse on each release.
People who like macOS experience for me either suffer from Stockholm syndrome, or nostalgia about lost macOS 9 base. Or simply have no idea there's something better!
macOS today is not macOS at all; it's a rebranded NeXT computer.
Re: As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program
#40I think that if every app has to explain to the user how to use their own operating system, that operating system is not intuitive. I’ve been using Macs for a long time but I had to look up how to install an app the first time I did it.