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> we need to be able to run native apps without installing anything Apple solved software [un]installation decades ago on the Macintosh. Drag in, drag out, no

> we need to be able to run native apps without installing anything Apple solved software [un]installation decades ago on the Macintosh. Drag in, drag out, no fuss. Only crappy developers use installers on macOS for things that don't strictly require system modification. Windows and Linux developers can join that party any time they want, but both ecosystems have their heads too far up their own respective asses re application packaging to make it happen.

maccolgan 5y ago
To be fair, on Linux that problem is also solved and has been solved for a while, just use an AppImage.
- BugsJustFindMe 5y ago
  Maybe, but the percentage of *nix developers producing AppImages for their applications is approximately 0%, and when they do apparently the community thinks it's still ok to make users jump through hoops like manually editing file execution privileges a la https://inkscape.org/release/inkscape-1.1.1/gnulinux/appimage/dl/ https://inkscape.org/release/inkscape-1.1.1/gnulinux/appimag... . And _then_ users have to work around the fact that every Linux distribution except for one has no readily visible place for a user to drop their AppImages into in the first place, because /opt, which I assure you is a completely fantastic and clear and obvious name for the folder that you put your applications into unlike Applications or Programs which are both stupid dumb names that nobody understands today, is relegated to a dark corner like the hideous goblin it is. While "drag to the Applications folder" has been a right and proper way to install software on the mac since the 80s.
mikewarot 5y ago
To be fair, you just copied files to a directory and ran the code in the days of MS-DOS. The real problem is mobile code, and how to safely run it. In a decade or two, the idea of running a program with capabilities to access the world by default will seem as insane as letting inmates run a prison.
nikau 5y ago
A lot of these things are nuanced by history - when computers had limited memory and disk everyone wanted to use shared libraries. However now the pendulum has swung to totally ignoring performance and focusing on reducing staffing costs which is higher than buying faster hardware - essentially everything now is just the equivalent of a static binary which makes development and deployment easy, but chews up memory and disk. It has downsides however, every time a vulnerability comes out you don't just update a single library, you have to update every app.

maccolgan 5y ago

To be fair, on Linux that problem is also solved and has been solved for a while, just use an AppImage.

BugsJustFindMe 5y ago
Maybe, but the percentage of *nix developers producing AppImages for their applications is approximately 0%, and when they do apparently the community thinks it's still ok to make users jump through hoops like manually editing file execution privileges a la https://inkscape.org/release/inkscape-1.1.1/gnulinux/appimage/dl/ https://inkscape.org/release/inkscape-1.1.1/gnulinux/appimag... . And _then_ users have to work around the fact that every Linux distribution except for one has no readily visible place for a user to drop their AppImages into in the first place, because /opt, which I assure you is a completely fantastic and clear and obvious name for the folder that you put your applications into unlike Applications or Programs which are both stupid dumb names that nobody understands today, is relegated to a dark corner like the hideous goblin it is. While "drag to the Applications folder" has been a right and proper way to install software on the mac since the 80s.

mikewarot 5y ago

To be fair, you just copied files to a directory and ran the code in the days of MS-DOS. The real problem is mobile code, and how to safely run it. In a decade or two, the idea of running a program with capabilities to access the world by default will seem as insane as letting inmates run a prison.

nikau 5y ago

A lot of these things are nuanced by history - when computers had limited memory and disk everyone wanted to use shared libraries. However now the pendulum has swung to totally ignoring performance and focusing on reducing staffing costs which is higher than buying faster hardware - essentially everything now is just the equivalent of a static binary which makes development and deployment easy, but chews up memory and disk. It has downsides however, every time a vulnerability comes out you don't just update a single library, you have to update every app.