Originally posted by übergeek
hah. right.
i dont know what you're on 
and i sorta dont want to know. Archive and Install just deletes the old base system files and replaces them with the new. Only the System folder gets changed, nothing else.
Hmm, that's interesting.
% ls /Previous\ Systems/Previous\ System\ 1
Applications/ System/ etc@ private/ var@
Developer/ Users/ mach.sym sbin/
Library/ bin/ mach_kernel usr/
Looks like the entire OS to me. All of this gets moved out of the way before the new OS is installed. It's
exactly the same as if you had done a clean install, and then unpacked a backup of your previous system into the /Previous Systems directory. That stuff in /Previous Systems is now nothing but data as far as the new OS is concerned.
It does screw up permissions (i remember having to wait half an hour to get all my permissions fixed after doing one) and they werent screwed up before i installed panther
If the permissions were messed up immediately after an Archive & Install, they would have been the same way after an Erase & Install. The resulting system, save for the /Users (which remains untouched) and /Previous Systems, is exactly the same in both cases. Maybe you discovered a fluke, but I'd be very, very surprised if this were always the case.
and Archive does slow down the computer too. Try doing a few Archive and Installs, and then do an Erase and Install and you'll see what I mean.
The only way I can possibly see this happening is if OS X actually looks in /Previous Systems for more libraries/frameworks and applications to use, and has to search through a bunch of duplicate/old versions each time. I don't know if it does this or not. Heck, I have an extra system with nothing important on it, I just may take you up on this and try it out...
Oh, the previous system folders...they take up so much space
True. Mine's about 3 GB. That's why I said you can go ahead and deleting once you're happy with how the new system is running.
Besides, everything becomes a mess sooner or later...its just easier to start over again. There are just so many prefs and crap that needs to be deleted...
Yes, but don't make things harder than they need to be! The beauty of Archive & Install is that you
do start over again, but you don't have to jump through hoops to backup and restore your data. Your home directory is still there with all your files. Any drag-and-drop installed applications are still there under /Previous Systems: just drag them out and back into /Applications (actually, the installer may do this for you, I don't remember). If you're worried about old preferences, just rename ~/Library or delete bad preference files.
You do need to reinstall applications which litter files in places like /Library (Photoshop??), so maybe that's a special case for Erase & Install (some people would say it's a case for Upgrade, but we do agree that that's generally a bad idea all around, right?
). But I wouldn't be surprised if most of those cases work just fine in Archive & Install by just reinstalling the application on top of what's there.
When I upgraded 4 machines to Panther, I did an Erase & Install on the first one. Actually it wasn't so bad because I was adding a new drive to that system, so I just installed on the new drive and kept Jaguar + all my data on the old one. I re-created the user accounts and copied home directories from the old drive to the new one. I decided to be ultra-safe and blow away all my old preferences. It was a pain in the butt to go and reconfigure every application just the way I like it set, but I thought I was saving myself trouble in the long run. I also reinstalled all my applications from the original CDs, rather than copying them over from the Jaguar /Applications directory. Took awhile...
I was still skeptical of Archive & Install, but I tried it on the next system. I decided to be daring and leave my old preferences, to see if any problems came up. None did. I didn't have to re-create my user accounts. Didn't have to reinstall any applications from their CDs either. This method was so much easier than Erase & Install, that I did it on the other 2 machines as well, with similar results. And just think if I'd truly erased the first system, having to backup and then restore all my data, it would've taken all day!
Considering that the Macintosh is aimed at people who want the computer to do stuff for them, not the other way around, jumping through fewer hoops is generally the preferred method of doing things. Some of us just like tinkering with the computer and feel better when we have absolute control over everything that happens. I used to be that way. And that's fine, but to most people that's a chore, not a joy. Nowadays I'm happier to just get on with what I'm doing rather than futzing around with the computer. I had fun tinkering with Linux and FreeBSD for 9 years of my life, but now I use Mac OS X for a reason.
Ehh, anyway.
I hope I don't come off as trying to start an argument or flamewar. I respect your preference (a few years ago I would have shared that preference), but I don't agree that Archive & Install messes things up -- I just don't see any evidence for that. At least not on a typical system. In my mind it's the best of both worlds and I really do think it's the best choice for the majority of Mac users.
