121–130 of 163 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would you remove an app if you want it to stay set up? iPhone has the "deleting an app will remove its data" thing for this reason.
Ironically, removing many iPhone apps does not delete its data (as far as the user is concerned) because the data is actually in the cloud somewhere.
As someone originally coming off of RISC OS[1] way back when, the mac way is closer to intuitive than the windows way, while Linux's approach of splitting files across the entire FS so that you can't possibly find all of them is "The Real WTF".
(Nixos is even further from that original intuition in a lot of ways. Oh for the days of drag-dropping the !App dir to wherever you happen to have space; and maybe dragging it to !menon if you needed to actually find it back )
[1] The operating system that came with a thin welcome booklet with reassuring pencil art explaining how to hold a mouse, and what the difference between a click and a doubleclick was. [2]
[2] https://archive.org/details/risc-os-5.28-user-guide/page/6/m... Oh wow, still exists in the RISC OS 5 manual. This kind of manual used to be famed : Eg. Chapter 1 introduces what a desktop is; Chapter 2 explains the mouse; 3 Explains the keyboard ; 4 explains what a window is. Give a motivated naive user this guide and there's a small chance they might actually grok the thing when they're done.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Same for uninstalling. Move to Trash and poof, unistalled. That removes most of the program files, but there is no chance for the program to run any cleanup process in the mean time. Library Support, .cache, and all other kinds of remnants remain and have no way of getting cleaned up without manual user intervention. It's like hunting down broken uninstaller files in Windows 98 all over again. The places that need…
Isn't it the same for Windows? There have been countless programs throughout the years that I've uninstalled and saw remnant folders in %appdata%, Documents folder, Program Files folder with only 2 remaining files inside, sometimes even hidden folders by default.
On macOS that mechanism is simply impossible if you install the app using the drag&drop method.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't even get me started on the registry.
How's registry different than ~/Library/Application Support?
The closest analogue to the registry on macOS are the ~/Library/Preferences and /Library/Preferences folders.
When I first got a Macbook, I tried installing an app and had no idea what to do once I saw the app icon, arrow and Applications folder with no additional instructions. I didn't figure it out and had to look it up. For an ecosystem praised for its "user friendliness", this was certainly not the best first impression.
I think the most confusing concept in this process for new users is the shortcut inside the disk image because it breaks the isolation metaphor. So, you download a file, and it's something called an "image" which opens in Finder like you'd inserted an external thumb drive. Fine. You open the image, and inside is... Your own Applications folder? Wait, how can the file I downloaded contain all of my apps? This kind of…
They just see “oh, I drag the app to applications”. The main issue I’ve seen is that people try to run the .app from the disk image, or forget to eject the image after moving the app.
Well designed dmg drag-drop style deployments will actually put some background artwork with arrows and text instructions telling the user to drag and drop into Applications.
Still, I think .pkg package style installers are the most intuitive process for non-techies, especially those coming from windows where MSI and install wizard style exes are common.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There isn't anything better. Don't tell me desktop linux. It's not fit for purpose and doesn't run the software I need it to run. I do not want to run Linux. I, frankly, do not like what Linux evolved into. The desktop linux of 15 years ago was sort of acceptable. Modern systems infected with pulseaudio, systemd, and whatever the fuck gnome and kde have turned into are not. I'd rather run Windows, and I hate Windows.
Well I run Linux since 25 years, so if you're telling me that it's not "fit for purpose" then I question your ability to see purpose. Also I think you're cargo culting. You have problems with existence of systemd while praising an OS that doesn't even allow you to disable transition animation delays when changing virtual screens. It's not logical. Btw, pulseaudio is old news, now it's pipewire.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ok but who said the quote?
It’s in TFA, but the post title is without the “very”
Counterpoint: as a Mac user it is surreal to click Next Next Next to install a program on Windows. Same for uninstalling. Move to Trash and poof, unistalled. There is no standard way to install stuff, so neither MacOS nor Windows deviates from something. For all the bickering about it here in the comments, no one proposed an “ideal” solution to install a program on Mac.
> Same for uninstalling. Move to Trash and poof, unistalled. That removes most of the program files, but there is no chance for the program to run any cleanup process in the mean time. Library Support, .cache, and all other kinds of remnants remain and have no way of getting cleaned up without manual user intervention. It's like hunting down broken uninstaller files in Windows 98 all over again. The places that need…
On the other hand, I never had disk issues because of randon files inside the user directory, nor do I install/uninstall programs that often. And this I would venture to say is the same for most of computer users: Office, IDE(s), a browser or two and some utilities.
I have for example Goland, Postman, Chrome, Firefox and Wireshark. And some homebrew stuff like ngrok & friends. I spend most of the time in Chrome doing emails and using Confluence/Jira, Google Meet.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lots of possible reasons: - You used a trial version of a software, or other time limited license, and want to keep the output from that around. - You are upgrading and that particular app requires uninstalling the old version before installing the new version - You run out of disk space and want to uninstall a game but don’t want to lose you’re progress That’s just what immediately comes to mind but suffice to say a…
User can back up files in all those cases, but if this is really an issue, the "data will be deleted" dialog can have a button to say no. The way it is now is the worst. It's so unclear what you need to do to actually uninstall something that people go download stuff to do it, often malware.
To be honest, I think the way Windows handles uninstalls is shit too. I don’t think either desktop OS has got it right.
Their respective app stores are an improvement on the status quo. But unfortunately they turned them into an ad riddled, proprietary mess that is more designed for their benefit than the end users.