[Macworld]

Post your comments for When installing software is too simple here

[Ventzi_Zhechev]

Oh, well. I’ve run into disk images, where the applications folder was an actual picture and you couldn’t really drop anything onto it…

[GrahamPadruig]

The developer could also check when the application is launched that it is not running from its installation disc image. If it is they could offer to copy it to the application folder for the user. CD-ROM distributed software tends to do this, so why doesn't downloaded software?

[simoneye]

I recently switched to a macbook from my windows pc and i also couldn't work out how to install software! I am quite computer literate and i couldn't see how you did it, and i tried dragging the disk image to applications and all sorts. I also thought it was an image showing you what to do.
Once you've got it it's obvious but i think the text as shown above would be very helpful, especially to people who are used to windows way of doing things!

[DougAdams]

Rob: thanks for citing my stuff. Another thing I do is include instructions for installation at the very beginning of the license agreement that appears as soon as the dmg opens. A good question for developers to ask themselves in general is "Would Mom know what to do with this?"

[earthsaver]

Actually, the instruction noted in the third picture already appears on the download page. Agreed, though, that it should also appear on the disk image. Plus, the download page gives instructions relevant to Tiger; in Leopard, step 2 is irrelevant.

[radneuerfinder]

Yeah, language is the best tool to communicate with a human being.
Unfortunately there is no tradition in gui design to use language (in whole sentences, as language uses sentences usually.). If you - the gui designer - fear to have to less space, the sentence could lurk under a "?".
At the moment, the sentences usually are far, far away in a (to make it even slower - online) help text. And very often you have to search laboriously for this sentences. So usually you are left alone with a icon ore one word.
Sadly, imho, nobody in the computer industrie seems to understand or care for this (fundamental) issue.

[stephenrea]

I can't count how many Mac users we've come across in our service business that don't understand that picture either.
They run the program from the disk image, then can't understand why the image keeps mounting again. "I drag it to the trash and it keeps coming back".
It also can't auto-update itself when launched from the image.

[tbsteph]

Rob's friend describes my exact experience when I first moved to a Mac. Something is only simple if you understand the basic premise.

[audioguy]

There's a reason Firefox chooses an entirely visual interface. There are a lot of languages in the world besides English.

[emorydunn]

Another thing a LOT of new Mac users have trouble with is simply ejecting the disk image and deleting the .dmg. They get the dragging the app to the app folder, but then they either drag the disk image or the .dmg to the app folder as well.

[radneuerfinder]

Of course! That's why Firefox comes in several languages on a website in 23 different luanguages. Only for installing (on a Mac) they trusted icons only.

[mmmdoughnuts]

No, the real problem is that there are many ways to install an application. Very un-mac like. Drag and drop had been the beauty of applications on a Mac. Everything was self contained inside the icon. Put it anywhere and it would run
"All those complex programs" ruined the easy to install mac experience by using the windows like installer / antagonizer.
I think the best way to do it is to reclaim the simplicity of the drag and drop install. And, on the first run of the application, the necessary drivers and support are installed and control of the license agreements are put up to stop unathorized execution of the program.
Who cares if you have a program, if it hasn't been unlocked.

[WarrenS]

The really fun thing is you can actually drag the firefox image to the real applications folder and drop it. The ideogram works either way.