Hacker News Reader

Comment by kogus | Hacker News Reader

I wish they would get rid of the absurd "mount a disk before you run an installer" paradigm. Installing an app downloaded from the web, Windows vs Mac:

Windows:

1 - Click a download link

2 - Yes, I'm sure

3 - Run

4 - Next, Next, Next, Finish

5 - Delete the setup file

OS X:

1 - Click a download link

2 - Yes, I'm sure

3 - Open a finder window

4 - Open .dmg file, and it mounts

5 - Open the mounted image

6 - Run the installer (or drag it somewhere, depending on the app)

7 - Continue, Continue, Finish

8 - Unmount the image

9 - Delete the .dmg file

View on HN

In fairness, steps 1-5 or some subset of them are combined into one or two, depending on your browser.

I agree the description is a little unfair, but the point is sound.

This is how it should work

    1. User clicks download link
    2. Browser downloads a standard cross-platform .zip file, decompresses in a temporary directory
    3. Browser notifies OS.
    4. OS looks in Info.plist for instructions on where to install, possibly mpkg for more complex installers
    5. OS prompts user for permission to install and possibly run the app, or passes user over to Installer.app for complex installs
    6. Temporary files are deleted

From the user's perspective it would work like this

    1. Click download link
    2. Click "Install and Run"

A lot of application DMGs feeling they have to give the Finder window a custom background image directing you to drag the .app to /Applications/ does indicte the paradigm is a bit shabby.

Much of the time, it's just:

1 - Click a download link

2 - Do other things until the DMG opens automatically

3 - Click and drag the application into the link to /Applications right next to it

4 - Yes, I want to run this downloaded application, the first time you run it.

Deleting the .dmg is something that I don't do as part of this process, but as part of a separate garbage collection process every few weeks.

Disk images are one of the most confusing things about day-to-day Mac OS X use, no question. The next time you're at a relatively non-technical friend's house, apple-click on Firefox or Chrome in their Dock. Dollars to donuts, it resides on a disk image.

Apple got rid of disks, why not get rid of the images too?

TBH, both Windows and Mac feel painful these days.

Ubuntu:

1 - Select package(s)

2 - Click Apply

(or use the command line to reduce to 1 step)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com