I used to play Oregon Trail (among other things) on an Apple in middle school but that was the last time I have used one. I just bought my very first mac ever (mac mini G4 1.5 Ghz 64MB vram 1GB mem 100 GB hard drive AP/BT/Modem I think that covers it, lol) and I have a program installation OS X specific question. I have read that you can drag and drop in applications to install programs. Tried that out, worked great. My question is what to do with the dmg files...are those equivalent to exe files on Windows PCs? As in, When Tivo Desktop went to 2.1 and I didn't want it, I still had my 2.0 exe to install from for all eternity so I didn't have to be force upgraded. Would I want to keep dmgs in case of a software revision of a program that I still want to use an older version of or do I have that all wrong?
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New to mac...file type question
- Thread starter iwitch
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iwitch said:
The .dmg is a disk image download,so to install an app that uses .dmg - open the .dmg then you should see the app icon drag that sucka to your app folder then trash the .dmg to delete it .. drag the app drive that looks like a thumbdrive image in Mac OS X and eject it too
Apple apps e.g. iLife etc use the installer method
OK, I sucessfully installed the apps, so you're saying the dmgs are worthless? I should trash those? I'm afraid to trash anything b/c I know I don't completely know what I'm doing yet, lol. I downloaded Adium and a few others that started out as .dmg before I installed them.
iwitch said:
After the app is in your app folder then you can delete the .dmgs
To uninstall a dmg app aka drag 'n drop app is Drag the app from app folder to the trash and empty it
Trash those DMG's !! No fear...
If they are commercial (you paid for them and downloaded them) then burn them to a disc or save em.
But if they're just freeware, then trash em...
If they are commercial (you paid for them and downloaded them) then burn them to a disc or save em.
But if they're just freeware, then trash em...
Unless you decide you want to keep them as sort of an archive. That way if a later version doesn't work as well as you want it to, you can install the old version.
A .dmg file is the approximate equivalent of a .zip file (maybe an exe file). (except the dmg file is a disk image, and has to be mounted/unmounted, while the zip is a compressed file/folder)
If you like keeping stuff on an external drive in an installs folder (in case you don't have a net connection and can't download the file again) then keep your dmg files.
A .dmg file is the approximate equivalent of a .zip file (maybe an exe file). (except the dmg file is a disk image, and has to be mounted/unmounted, while the zip is a compressed file/folder)
If you like keeping stuff on an external drive in an installs folder (in case you don't have a net connection and can't download the file again) then keep your dmg files.
Thanks for the help. I've been a lurker on this site for years and you guys really know your stuff. I'll be sure to post more questions later since I will be giving adding my windows networked HP PSC 2210 all-in-one printer another go round...
