Re: Re: OSX Features I'd like to see
I would not want the add/remove setup windows has. Software update is smart enough to see that you have safari, iDvd, iTunes, etc installed and to notify you of updates. And everytime there is a significant update, someone here complains of not seeing the update. Invariably, someone asks if the person has the app somewhere besides the apps directory, and the problem is solved.
There were rumors that apple would be opening up software update to 3rd party developers. I don't know how software update works, but I guess it just does a unix find against the /applications directory looking for matches to a list of filenames. Perhaps it is smarter than that. Drag and drop installed apps are updated just fine.
Really, since apps represent directories containing everything, apple could setup a standard manifest type file in plain text, or xml that each app should include. The file can supply the version, app name, where the app came from (cd, lan, web url), url for updates, etc. The os could easily fill in the where during the drag and drop into /applications. Easy enough to realize that it was dragged from a CD with a given volume name. Easy enough to log the date the app was dropped in, the date the app was last launched and the number of times the app has been used. I'm sure that since Apple is supplying the browser now, people using safari could click an install button that would unzip/unzgip/untar/unstuff the download, put it into /applications and insert the url into the manifest that safari is aware of.
The tool I'd like could then just scan /applications, or start at / looking for these manifest files, and create a simple db or report.
Now, when I'm moving to a new machine, or my system gets hosed, I could run this tool (using the exported db/report file on a new system), I could see all apps sorted by usage, select the ones I want to have, safari could download all the apps that came off the web, the os could try to locate all apps that came off the lan, and I could have a checklist of what CD's, I need to go hunting for. If the CD's installed older versions of the apps in my report, this tool would at least alert me, if not download the latest updates for me.
Really, the OS is "done" when it provides all the capability any power user wants, and at the same time is easily maintainable, always recoverable, and always up to date, even when the computer is owned by my grandmother.
I would not want the add/remove setup windows has. Software update is smart enough to see that you have safari, iDvd, iTunes, etc installed and to notify you of updates. And everytime there is a significant update, someone here complains of not seeing the update. Invariably, someone asks if the person has the app somewhere besides the apps directory, and the problem is solved.
There were rumors that apple would be opening up software update to 3rd party developers. I don't know how software update works, but I guess it just does a unix find against the /applications directory looking for matches to a list of filenames. Perhaps it is smarter than that. Drag and drop installed apps are updated just fine.
Really, since apps represent directories containing everything, apple could setup a standard manifest type file in plain text, or xml that each app should include. The file can supply the version, app name, where the app came from (cd, lan, web url), url for updates, etc. The os could easily fill in the where during the drag and drop into /applications. Easy enough to realize that it was dragged from a CD with a given volume name. Easy enough to log the date the app was dropped in, the date the app was last launched and the number of times the app has been used. I'm sure that since Apple is supplying the browser now, people using safari could click an install button that would unzip/unzgip/untar/unstuff the download, put it into /applications and insert the url into the manifest that safari is aware of.
The tool I'd like could then just scan /applications, or start at / looking for these manifest files, and create a simple db or report.
Now, when I'm moving to a new machine, or my system gets hosed, I could run this tool (using the exported db/report file on a new system), I could see all apps sorted by usage, select the ones I want to have, safari could download all the apps that came off the web, the os could try to locate all apps that came off the lan, and I could have a checklist of what CD's, I need to go hunting for. If the CD's installed older versions of the apps in my report, this tool would at least alert me, if not download the latest updates for me.
Really, the OS is "done" when it provides all the capability any power user wants, and at the same time is easily maintainable, always recoverable, and always up to date, even when the computer is owned by my grandmother.
