Why the install hassle, Ofoto? (Mac confuses people)

[Schtibbie]

A friend with a Mac just called me up so I could help her with getting the Kodak Ofoto Express software installed. I figured it would be simple - you just download the installer and run it, right? No such luck!

The site says to download the installer and drag to the Applications folder. Easy enough, except that didn't work for her. See, what she was dragging to the folder was a .sit file (or some such, I don't remember) which accomplishes NOTHING by sitting there in Applications. She clicked on it several times before giving up and calling me. Why should she have to know about .sit files? Why, praytell?

But before THAT, she tries to manually upload one picture at a time. Except iPhoto stores its photos so confusingly that she could not find them on her own hard drive. Well, she found them but they were old unretouched, un-renamed version of photos she had since retouched AND renamed. I try explaining to her about how the filesystem shouldn't be navigated that way on the mac and that surely her files were somewhere...

So now I need to go install Stuffit Expander on her machine and explain why (why?) that doesn't come standard on the Mac, and then explain that the *product* of that expansion needs to be dragged to the Applications folder and THEN you have to unmount the Stuffit "drive" and then delete the .dmg file from the desktop.

God, I love my Mac, but stuff like this is downright embarrassing to have to explain to someone who found software installation much easier on her old Windows box.

 

[Blue Velvet]

Blame Kodak for using old-fashioned methods, not Apple.

 

[Cromulent]

That is just a bad example. I thought .sit files were pretty much dead now. They should be at least, Tar / Gzip is a much better compression format and is built into Mac OS X.

As for the rest she just needs to learn she is using a Mac not a PC and that you do not use them in the same way no matter what the similarities are.

 

[Schtibbie]

Ah, I made a mistake in my original post. It was a zip file from ofoto, not a sit. Does Mac handle those natively without stuffit? Anyway, in this case I just had to remove the zip file from her Applications folder to the desktop, unzip it, run the dmg to open the disk image, and drag the app icon into the Application folder.

Not too bad, but really this should have fewer steps involved.

 

[aristobrat]

I have never downloaded a ZIP file that had a DMG inside. I thought DMGs were already as compressed as they get. Grrrrrrrrr @ Kodak.

 

[Cromulent]

Ah, I made a mistake in my original post. It was a zip file from ofoto, not a sit. Does Mac handle those natively without stuffit? Anyway, in this case I just had to remove the zip file from her Applications folder to the desktop, unzip it, run the dmg to open the disk image, and drag the app icon into the Application folder.

Not too bad, but really this should have fewer steps involved.

Yep OS X handles Zip files with no additional software.

I have never downloaded a ZIP file that had a DMG inside. I thought DMGs were already as compressed as they get. Grrrrrrrrr @ Kodak.

It happens from time to time. It is only one extra step so it is not that bad.

 

[Sun Baked]

The relationship with Apple and Stuffit became frayed after they got bought out a couple times, since Apple isn't including stuffit expander anymore -- they may have asked for more money, usual thing to do to pay for a purchase.

Apple may not be to blame, plus they have been deleting quite a bit of their old fee for inclusion software and replacing it with opensource alternatives, their own products, and trial ware.

The one I miss the most is the Dataviz Maclink stuff, which left a long long time ago.

 

[MisterMe]

...

The one I miss the most is the Dataviz Maclink stuff, which left a long long time ago.

This was part of the ClarisWorks/AppleWorks package. I am not aware of the inclusion of MacLinkPlus Deluxe with the general MacOS.

 

[Sun Baked]

This was part of the ClarisWorks/AppleWorks package. I am not aware of the inclusion of MacLinkPlus Deluxe with the general MacOS.

Several translator were in Appleworks... after it started getting phased off the machines.

Edit: Looking back it only lasted System 7.6 through around 8.5 ... several of the machines with the business packages got the standard edition in addition to the translators included with the OS.