Re: Upgrading without central packaging

[prev] [thread] [next] [lurker] [Date index for 2005/04/23]

From: Juerd
Subject: Re: Upgrading without central packaging
Date: 16:25 on 23 Apr 2005
Peter da Silva skribis 2005-04-23  8:16 (-0500):
> And on Mac OS, installing applications has always been easy. But the
> people writing cross-platform applications have spent a lot of time and
> effort coming up with packaging schemes and installers, and so have
> transferred both of them over to Mac OS X.

Yes, installing a program is easy. Upgrading it is too.

Even removing it is easy.

But none of it can easily be done in bulk, which means that if you want
to do more than one program, the easy bit is gone.

> Try http://macupdate.com/ instead. You can update the rest of the apps you use
> at the same time.

That helps. But it feels like one of those GUIs for Debian's apt, a big
difference being that this GUI can only search and install, while apt
GUIs can also upgrade and remove from a central application.

> >      5. double click an icon (dmg)
> Click on the name in the download window.

Good idea.

> >      6. drag another icon to the Applications folder
> And you get to say WHERE you want it, it doesn't just vanish into the
> dark forest of /usr. So when you want to sync up your Mac at work with
> the software on your Mac at home you just
> 	rsync --rsh=ssh home.example.com::/Local /Local

The synching thing is nice - still, this functionality could be
integrated into package management for OS X. I agree that the /usr woods
are convoluted and basically just suck. Application directories work
much better.

I don't understand why when something's easy, people stop trying to make
it even easier. Why can't I just in a simple window (no website, no ads,
no having to pay) type the name of the thing I want, and have the
computer do all the repetitive tasks? That's what a computer is good at,
and I prefer wasting my time doing things I like.

> >      7. confirm that I want to replace the old one
> >      8. close the Finder window again
> Click on the "eject" button next to the volume name.

Handy. Thanks.

> >      9. select two icons (dmg and mounted volume)
> >     10. drag them to Trash
> Drag the DMG to "/Local/Installed" so you have a clean copy, and when
> you clicked eject you unmounted the DMG and closed the window.

And maintain updates in two places? That's even more work. If I need it
again, I'll apt-ge^H^H^H^H^H^Hmanually download it again...

> > And after all that hard labour, all that's upgraded is just one program!
> http://macupdate.com/ or http://versiontracker.com/
> I prefer macupdate, Versiontracker is a bit tarpit-ish.

If there's some magic software upgrading program hiding in there, it is
indeed very good at hiding.

> The 8-step procedure is easier for newbies than "apt-get install firefox".

Yes. But this way, they will forever stay newbies. There is no more
advanced level (well, some shortcuts like the two you indicated) of
understanding, so there isn't more efficiency to be gained. In that
respect, it is like PHP: made for newbies in a way that prevents them
from ever reaching a higher level and power users from doing things
efficiently.


Juerd
-- 
http://convolution.nl/maak_juerd_blij.html
http://convolution.nl/make_juerd_happy.html 
http://convolution.nl/gajigu_juerd_n.html
There's stuff above here

Generated at 02:00 on 03 May 2005 by mariachi 0.52