With a zip file and Safari, the experience is this: 1. Click download on website 2. App appears in your Downloads folder (automatically unzipped and with the

With a zip file and Safari, the experience is this: 1. Click download on website 2. App appears in your Downloads folder (automatically unzipped and with the original zip file removed). For new users, that's definitely more intuitive than a disk image because you never have to interact with an intermediate format. You just download the app. You do probably still have to understand the concept that apps are like files and can be located in folders. Alternatively, you can launch the app via Spotlight. But if you try to launch the app from the downloads list, it will work, only to stop working in the future once the downloads list clears. Or if you try to use Mission Control, the app just won't show up there unless you move it to /Applications. This is more complicated than the App Store. But it's still simpler than disk images, where you still have to understand all of that, but also have to understand the idea of disk images being mounted and ejected. Sure, Mac users who once used software distributed on physical disks may have an easier time with disk images, but most software has not been distributed that way for a very long time. Other browsers and operating systems make zip files more complicated. In Chrome on macOS, you have to double-click the zip file to unzip it. At that point you have the app in your Downloads folder, but the original zip file is also still there, so you have to manually discard it or leave it as clutter. In Windows, double-clicking a zip file makes Windows Explorer enter into the zip file, similar to disk images on macOS but without the mounting aspect. If you then try to double-click an exe file, you'll get a dialog that prompts you to "Extract all" or "Run", and recommends that you extract all. "Run" will extract just the selected file to a temporary directory and run it, which will often not work, explaining the recommendation. It works well enough, but the fact that a zip file acts like a folder in some ways but not others, and the existence of the semi-useless "Run" option, arguably creates a confusing mental model.