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Mac OS X Lion to Bring iOS-Like Uninstall Process for Mac App Store Apps
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Thanks for the heads up. I've been using App Zapper, which is seems is basically the same thing. But I keep downloading the trial
A free solution is nice.
Thanks for the heads up. I've been using App Zapper, which is seems is basically the same thing. But I keep downloading the trial
I've been using this - AppCleaner
Nice to see Apple bringing all of these nifty iOS elements to the Mac... But come on Apple, no need to beat around the bush.. We know iOS and OSX will soon be one in the same, trackpads and mice in the garbage and transverse plane oriented multitouch desktop screens.
MAS? The Muslim American Society? The Municipal Art Society of NY? Malaysia Airlines? Monetary Authority of Singapore?
Confused
So are Mac apps sold though the App Store expected to keep all assets in their respective bundle, and not utilize Application Support? Would this uninstaller method remove files not in the app's bundle? What about preferences?
p.s. I think a lot of people are overreacting to this. Remember when everyone was all up in arms with the fear that the Final Cut rewrite would be a dumbed down iOS style iMovie? Well, instead it looks awesome. Yes, it borrows from iOS and from iMovie, but it takes the best parts of those to make a better, more powerful, and at the same time, easier to use, product. Hopefully Apple is doing the same in regards to Lion. Have a little faith!
p.s. I think a lot of people are overreacting to this. Remember when everyone was all up in arms with the fear that the Final Cut rewrite would be a dumbed down iOS style iMovie? Well, instead it looks awesome. Yes, it borrows from iOS and from iMovie, but it takes the best parts of those to make a better, more powerful, and at the same time, easier to use, product. Hopefully Apple is doing the same in regards to Lion. Have a little faith!
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When I switched (back in 2002), the hardest thing in this respect was getting it through my head that that one icon sitting in the /Applications folder really is the whole app (*for well-behaved drag-install apps). Yes, you have "tools" like AppCleaner which delete all the prefs and user files for an app as well, obliterating any trace that the app was ver on your system, but those are just prefs. If the app itself is removed, the prefs are just text (or sometimes binary compressed) files sitting on the hard drive. They don't matter.
This is in absolute contrast to Windows where any app worth its salt comes with an installer, which spreads unknowable components throughout the hard drive and changes various settings everywhere in the system. Of course you need another automated tool to (sometimes) undo all those changes.
Since 2002, the trend in Mac software has been a lot of large installers (the majority are well-behaved drag-install apps, but I see installers on apps which really shouldn't need an opaque installer at all). OS X doesn't have a good answer for those kinds of apps, and it is indeed messy.
The App Store, however, essentially moves us back to a compartmentalized app workspace which can be removed as automatically as it is laid down.
++
And in addition of this it is often not fully working - I already had countless times to download the 'msi repair' tool so that I was able to somewhat delete installed apps - keeps getting screwed up either due to version mix up, old installer not found. MS way works ok for most apps, but not for too many. I like the self contained way most apple apps do it (still: you should use AppZapper to also remove library settings) ... but also too many mac apps (including apples own) use installers .... again: not consistent (is that 'self contained' enforced by MAS rules or do some apps in there have installers?)
Apple sees the benefit of unifying how things work across OS X and iOS.
There are tons of people that don't know how to install or uninstall apps on their PC, but they do on their iPhone or iPad. By unifying, those people feel comfortable buying a Mac.
There are tons of people that don't know how to install or uninstall apps on their PC, but they do on their iPhone or iPad. By unifying, those people feel comfortable buying a Mac.
Any app which puts stuff in Library, etc, should include an uninstaller. That is not a well-behaved drag-install app.
Of course, looking at your /Applications folder, I defy anyone to reliably pick the drag-install apps (which can just be dragged to trash) apart from the installer-installed apps (for which you will need to somehow locate an uninstaller to remove them).
MAS? The Muslim American Society? The Municipal Art Society of NY? Malaysia Airlines? Monetary Authority of Singapore?
Confused
Try MacAppStore (you know, the generic name with Mac in front of it)
…or hold down the "Option" key and click away…
Better one, CleanMyMac
Manage Plugins/Extensions, intelligent uninstaller, automatic device cleanup, cache cleaner, logs cleaner, language cleaner, remove unneeded binary files (PowerPC code mostly, shrinks app sizes and improves launch time), searches and removes leftover files from removed apps not cleaned by CleanMyMac, quick erase, clean out app system junk to improve performance, empty trash from app's that have self-contained trash bins (such as iPhoto), and a lot more. Great app (god I sound like a commercial! lol)
Better one, CleanMyMac
Manage Plugins/Extensions, intelligent uninstaller, automatic device cleanup, cache cleaner, logs cleaner, language cleaner, remove unneeded binary files (PowerPC code mostly, shrinks app sizes and improves launch time), searches and removes leftover files from removed apps not cleaned by CleanMyMac, quick erase, clean out app system junk to improve performance, empty trash from app's that have self-contained trash bins (such as iPhoto), and a lot more. Great app (god I sound like a commercial! lol)
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this is a very smart play if they are thinking that iPad and iPhone halo-effect is going to drive users to Mac OS X. this will give a smoother transition.
those who have a background in Mac OS X are going to feel a bit unnerved by it, but I should have the technical expertise to figure it out.
however, i see no reason why tapping and holding a non-MAS app and then tapping the X should not just simulate the whole "drag to trash" functionality of today. it would look stupid if some of my apps deleted this way and others did not.
also, what I do like about this is that apple can ensure that novice users don't delete the stuff they need by simply NOT placing a little "X" on the jiggly icon (like they do on iOS). this way there is not an attempt to delete followed by a warning that they cannot delete it -- instead they just never get the opportunity to try.
those who have a background in Mac OS X are going to feel a bit unnerved by it, but I should have the technical expertise to figure it out.
however, i see no reason why tapping and holding a non-MAS app and then tapping the X should not just simulate the whole "drag to trash" functionality of today. it would look stupid if some of my apps deleted this way and others did not.
also, what I do like about this is that apple can ensure that novice users don't delete the stuff they need by simply NOT placing a little "X" on the jiggly icon (like they do on iOS). this way there is not an attempt to delete followed by a warning that they cannot delete it -- instead they just never get the opportunity to try.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8H7)
WTF? This is a computer, with a real mouse/trackpad. Click and hold til it wiggles, then click the x?
RIGHT-CLICK. COME ON APPLE, THIS ISN'T ROCKET SCIENCE.
WTF? This is a computer, with a real mouse/trackpad. Click and hold til it wiggles, then click the x?
RIGHT-CLICK. COME ON APPLE, THIS ISN'T ROCKET SCIENCE.
With so many people using iOS nowadays, making the deletion process consistent throughout all hardware can ultimately be more logical and intuitive. This is Apple leveraging the ecosystem in a way to make PCs easier to use through familiarity. And this is a strong selling point for non computer users or for Windows users to switch to Mac. People who just never "got" computers or only familiar with Windows but know how to operate their iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad (and there are MANY people like that) would benefit greatly from this direction.
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Minor clarification from the everything-old-is-new-again dept ...
We can say this comes from iOS. But remember that iOS got this basic paradigm in slightly more primitive form from the OS X Dashboard, which was introduced in 10.3 (or was it 10.4?).
We can say this comes from iOS. But remember that iOS got this basic paradigm in slightly more primitive form from the OS X Dashboard, which was introduced in 10.3 (or was it 10.4?).
I got a another newbie question
I am planning on moving out of Windows (7) and onto MAC OS X, but I want to wait for Lion since its close to a finished product. Now my question is, if Lion comes out, would that mean every Mac (Mac Pro, iMac, iMac mini, Macbook, MB Pros, etc) would have Lion installed/packaged or is there a specific mac that will have Lion on its first day and the other macs would have to wait???
I am planning on moving out of Windows (7) and onto MAC OS X, but I want to wait for Lion since its close to a finished product. Now my question is, if Lion comes out, would that mean every Mac (Mac Pro, iMac, iMac mini, Macbook, MB Pros, etc) would have Lion installed/packaged or is there a specific mac that will have Lion on its first day and the other macs would have to wait???
But than it should be unified ... not three different ways depending how you got/installed the app. Right now it looks there are three ways of doing it in Lion:
- click & hold
- just trash
- run uninstaller
Unfortunately it is only ONE of those ways depending how you got it.
I think what you're looking for is Mac OSXI which will come after Lion. Lion is likely the (paid) beta test for merging iOS and OSX elements with the goal of creating a unified OS, but they still have to maintain the core features of OSX, even if they've become redundant. The next iteration will likely be a clean break and drop many redundant features.
If Microsoft thinks they can make a desktop and tablet friendly version of Windows (Windows 8) I have no doubts that Apple can actually succeed on that front (and no, I don't think macs will ever be restricted to the mac app store only).