Applications in OS X

[76ShovelHead]

One thing I LOVE about OS X:

You download an App and drag it to the App folder or wherever and your done. Most apps are like this, it's almost as if they are self-contained. Why?

Meanwhile Windows requires an installer, and Linux is a mess (you have to add PPA's a lot of the times). Linux also uses an installer and an App store. I however have no idea where apps are stored or how to modify them on Linux, namely Ubuntu.

So what is it, what is the magic behind OS X? and could it be possible for Linux to adopt such an easy system?

 

[MisterKeeks]

In fairness, most of the Apps I've installed have required an installer.

 

[maflynn]

Many of the apps I use need an installer. I do love the drag and drop feature but at this point most OSX apps require an installer.

LightRoom, Aperture, Office, iWork, photoshop, iLife etc all use installer.

 

[Drew017]

One thing I LOVE about OS X:

You download an App and drag it to the App folder or wherever and your done. Most apps are like this, it's almost as if they are self-contained. Why?

Meanwhile Windows requires an installer, and Linux is a mess (you have to add PPA's a lot of the times). Linux also uses an installer and an App store. I however have no idea where apps are stored or how to modify them on Linux, namely Ubuntu.

So what is it, what is the magic behind OS X? and could it be possible for Linux to adopt such an easy system?

That is because an application in OS X is actually a packaged folder with all of the contents and code an app needs to work. This is why you can drag it around like a regular folder. The difference between OS X apps and Windows apps is that windows apps aren't packaged... they usually require a lot of different files to work. You will still see some OS X apps needed to be installed, but this is usually because the installer automatically moves the apps to where they need to be (apps folder) and if the app needs any other assorted files to help it run it will move those too (usually these will be things like fonts or helper applications etc)