Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program

unsung.aresluna.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 191 posts

Re: As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program

#161

Post by d3Xt3r »

ifh-hn wrote: post #159

I'm not a Mac user, and have no.comment about the drag to application folder thing. But as a Linux and windows user, I always liked how windows could have portable apps. These dmg files seem similar to having a portable app. Back in the day I had a usb with my favourite apps and distros on it. I might be wrong since I've never used a Mac before.

> I always liked how windows could have portable apps.

Linux has portable apps too - AppImages and static binaries.

As for Macs, dmg files are not apps, they're just archives like zip files. The apps go inside the dmg files. And these "apps" are actually just plain old folders with extra metadata that makes macOS treat it like it was an executable. But you can infact navigate to the inside of an app if you use the terminal, like you can literally `cd` to it and treat it like a folder that it is.

Re: As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program

#162

Post by ifh-hn »

frollogaston wrote: post #46

The dmg thing makes no sense. I do like that the app is self-contained, unlike Windows where it's always an installer, but don't like how deleting the app doesn't clear whatever files it put all over the place.

You should search for portable apps. For me it's the only good thing about windows.

Re: As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program

#163

Post by pathartl »

wpm wrote: post #120
jocoda wrote: post #50

FYI - You don't have to drag the app to the applications folder in the install window. You can drag the app to a different location. I have an entry level mini 8GB/255 GB SSD with 1TB external SSD. Everything goes on the external. There are only a handful of apps that insist on being installed in the system Application folder. Even had xCode running on the external. Uninstalling is supposed to be as simple as moving…

Uninstalling has the same issue on every OS because the OS isn't keeping a log of every file an application creates over its lifetime being installed; it can only remove what it knows about.

In Windows this is currently being transformed with MSIX... Whenever that gets a foothold that is. But this is also why it was expected that you were to bundle an uninstaller with your application. It was expected that the developer was to handle cleanup. Obviously too many developers cut corners. The only way around this really is to have a system-wide hook that tracks what files an executable touches, and then have that executable registered to an overall application definition.

It's never going to be perfect. You can be really anal about it where you end up with iOS where, yes, you can sleep pretty well knowing that when you delete an app it has cleaned up after itself. The obvious tradeoff being that it's inherently limiting the scope of what you can do with the app.

I think it's gotten much better in recent years for the Windows crowd. I've been running the same install of 11 for about two years now. Back in the XP days I'd be lucky to be able to make it 6 months without feeling like everything was incredibly bogged down with no way out.

Re: As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program

#164

Post by cantSpellSober »

stevekerr wrote: post #17

Why 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.

PKG if you need to install files aside from your application bundle.

Re: As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program

#165

Post by Schiendelman »

redeeman wrote: post #140
raffael_de wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who grew up with Windows the canonical equivalent action would have been to select "install" from the dmg file's context menu (which is opened by a right click). The MacOS way to do it feels too gimmicky and different-for-being-different's sake ...

well.. its not like they were hiding it when they said "think differently"

They said "think different" - intentionally not using the adverb, to be different!

Re: As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program

#166

Post by TylerE »

self_awareness wrote: post #155
TylerE wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What part of " doesn't run the software I need it to run" are you struggling to understand?

I'm not struggling because I don't really need nor want to understand that. The fact that you want to run macos-specific software doesn't affect me at all, and has nothing to do with macos being better than anything else. I'm using linux-native software all the time, that has no equivalents in other systems.

What an ironic username

Re: As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program

#167

Post by gurumeditations »

Using my Mac as a lifelong Windows user has given me new appreciation for the elegant logical design of Windows 7 and XP. It’s clear the Mac is full of bizarre retrograde UX choices leftover from the original Macintoshes in the 80s and the only reason I can kind of figure out using it now is because I grew up with iOS as well which has been cannonballed into the old workings of macOS over the years. Clearly Apple never gave a damn about fixing macOS until recently probably because it was the same handful of people using it for the past 40 years.

Re: As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program

#168

Post by justsomehnguy »

AKA tech support nightmare.

But I want to shout out for the way the progress bar of the video was made - I hate disappearing ones, but at least it doesn't obscure the content itself!

It's still mind boggling what the video controls in 2026 are treated like Flash ActiveX iframe.

Re: As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program

#169

Post by justsomehnguy »

hahn-kev wrote: post #86
IshKebab wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least with Windows it's always clear what to do. Mac can dump you in a finder window with two icons. Very unclear. You may have forgotten how unclear this can be for the first time.

I grew up using windows and the first time I ran into that on the Mac I think I had to Google what to do.

In my first time I needed like the whole 10 minutes to find where the system settings are.

Re: As a Windows user, it's a surreal way to install a program

#170

Post by throw-the-towel »

somat wrote: post #152
dabinat wrote: post #40

I 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.

The quote I like is "The only intuitive interface is the nipple, every other one has to be learned" So as long as an interface is consistent with prior interfaces I guess it is "intuitive" I have never used mac, but it sounds like a good interface to me, not the .dmg one, that one is. weird. but where the application is self constrained in it's own directory. The traditional unix method where the parts go according t…

Even the nipple isn't intuitive for every baby. Some of them need suck training.
Post reply on HN