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I used to dislike purchasing from the Mac App Store too, so when I got my new iMac a few months ago I decided against migrating all the unused junk from my old

I used to dislike purchasing from the Mac App Store too, so when I got my new iMac a few months ago I decided against migrating all the unused junk from my old MacBook and would instead start with a fresh OS X install.... great idea, right up until I realised that I didn't have all the install files for dozens of audio tools I use. The App Store ones were a simple matter of logging in with my Apple account and reinstalling (this included Dash, mentioned here). The other tools meant hunting around for installers, realising that most of the installers now were several versions ahead of the ones I used, in many cases breaking my music projects. It also meant trawling through 9 years of emails to find licence file attachments and serials numbers so I could re-register the applications, or try and purchase upgrades for those where I couldn't find an installer with the same version as I had bought. Giant PITA. For once I was glad that App Store apps were all auto updated through the time I had them, and I didn't have to bother with activation codes etc. In fact, I ended up trashing the fresh install idea and migrated my old machine to the new. I was actually easier to put up with old junk apps I didn't use anymore than to try and manually install just the ones I needed.

vetinari 10y ago
And this is a reason, why I take care in archiving installers, license keys, serials, etc for every application I use. Learned my lesson some 25 years ago, when there wasn't Internet to try to find the installer and email archive to hunt for licenses.
- cyberferret 10y ago
  Good point - and I do have a registry of installers and serial numbers for my crucial development software. However, I have literally hundreds of audio plugins and utilities that are tedious to track. End of the day, it is an admin cost to maintain such an archive - and some days I think it is far easier to outsource that archival maintenance and recording to a third party... such as an App Store... :) NB: A lot of my audio software is licenced via an iLok device. Whilst I HATED the idea of a 'dongle' like an iLok before, this hardware upgrade has made me appreciate the fact that I didn't have to worry about re-licencing all of my audio production software the used the iLok either.
ahrs 10y ago
> The other tools meant hunting around for installers `brew cask install $APP` > ...to find licence file attachments and serials numbers Store these in 1Password (other password managers are available) Your point about versioning is a good one though. A lot of sites don't make it easy to find older versions of their software and I don't think package managers like homebrew support versioning (although I could be wrong).

vetinari 10y ago

And this is a reason, why I take care in archiving installers, license keys, serials, etc for every application I use. Learned my lesson some 25 years ago, when there wasn't Internet to try to find the installer and email archive to hunt for licenses.

cyberferret 10y ago
Good point - and I do have a registry of installers and serial numbers for my crucial development software. However, I have literally hundreds of audio plugins and utilities that are tedious to track. End of the day, it is an admin cost to maintain such an archive - and some days I think it is far easier to outsource that archival maintenance and recording to a third party... such as an App Store... :) NB: A lot of my audio software is licenced via an iLok device. Whilst I HATED the idea of a 'dongle' like an iLok before, this hardware upgrade has made me appreciate the fact that I didn't have to worry about re-licencing all of my audio production software the used the iLok either.

ahrs 10y ago

> The other tools meant hunting around for installers `brew cask install $APP` > ...to find licence file attachments and serials numbers Store these in 1Password (other password managers are available) Your point about versioning is a good one though. A lot of sites don't make it easy to find older versions of their software and I don't think package managers like homebrew support versioning (although I could be wrong).