Software that SUCKS (but doesn’t have to)

Posted on January 26, 2006 by schwa

This is a list of software that is otherwise extremely useful but is let down by a really poor installation procedure. I’ll be updating the list as I come across more software that almost gets it but lets it self down with a shoddy or unncessary installer. Feel free to contribute to the list by adding a comment!

Things that make the install process suck include:

  • Uses an installer but only installs an Application that could have easily been installed by hand via a drag & drop install
  • Uses an installer, but the installer forces you to install to /Applications when you’d prefer to install to another location.
  • Uses a third party Installer that cannot be opened via Pacifist or installed using the command line “installer” command
  • Uses a own custom Installer (see above – but worse)
  • Software dials home and/or doesn’t inform the the user that it dials home and/or dialing home cannot be switched off in the application’s preferences
  • Software is packaged in a disk image that has been redundantly encoded and/or compressed in another archive (e.g. .dmg.zip/.dmg.hqx)
  • Installer refuses to run if any other applications are running and/or automatically quits other applications
  • Installer forces you to reboot (come on guys this is Mac OS X not Windows)
  • Software is badly versioned (e.g. you download version 1.1 of a program but the Info.plist file says it is version 1.0)
  • Software includes a version number in its filename (or the name of the enclosing directory)
disclabel

by Smile On My Mac

Why? 1) Uses an installer but only seems to install an Application. 2) Cannot install anywhere other than /Applications. 3) Uses a non-standard installer (Filestorm).

Mail Factory

by Belight Software

Why? 1) Uses an installer to install items that the application could install itself when ran. 2) Cannot install anywhere other than /Applications.

Business Card Composer

by Belight Software

Why? 1) Uses an installer to install items that the application could install itself when ran. 2) Cannot install anywhere other than /Applications.

Komodo

by ActiveState

Why? 1) Version 3.5.2 of Komodo is mislabled as Version 3.5

QuickSilver

by Blacktree, Inc.

Why? 1) Application filename contains garbage unicode characters (“Qu?c?s????????” pretty huh?) in an attempt to look cool. (QuickSilver is one of the few apps that doesn’t need to try to look cool, it already is)

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  • Wendell
    Quicksilver's filename doesn't have any "special" characters in it -- check it in the Terminal. He's using localized names and overwrote the English one.
  • Gustav, you answered your own question.

    Not all apps that request admin privs actually need them. Not all apps that install to /Library give the option to install to ~/Library.

    There is a lot of sloppy development around, and it seems that installers are very prone to sloppiness. See http://www.noodlesoft.com/blog/2007/04/15/a-mod... for a possible "silver bullet" to (some) sloppy installers.
  • Gustav
    Why admin privileges? Well, do you want MacOS X to be secure or not? If an installer has to install into /Library/Services or another globally accessible location or not, it has to have authentication. I agree if it's just an Application, it doesn't need it. But apps like StickyBrain that install services for all users require it - and that's a good thing.

    You can't have your cake and eat it too.
  • I'm the build manager for a commercial software company. (Is it kosher to comment on a post this old?) There's a reason you sometimes see redundantly compressed images (.dmg.zip etc.) If your MIME types are not set up correctly a .dmg will happily display its binary intestines in the browser window instead of downloading. I had to zip the dmgs for our software for a little while before fixing this.

    I used to ship an Apple installer (mainly to show the license agreement!) Now I go for a minimal approach. For web downloads Mac users get a .tgz file with the app inside and nothing else. By default the app will extract itself to your desktop. (Using .tgz rather than the traditional .tar.gz stops the Finder from creating an intermediary .tar file, I don't use .zip because I actually create these right on the Linux web server and the zip there doesn't handle Mac metadata.)

    Windows users get an NSIS installer and have to click "Next" a half-dozen times. Gotta give people what they expect!
  • PS:

    1. thanks for the heads up on the Cisco VPN client. I'm sure that would have hit me in the "/opt" sooner or later.

    2. Microsoft Office for the Mac is a surprising exception to the "sucky installer" issue. They do have an installer, but you don't actually need to use it: you can just drag the thing into the applications directory of your choice. Way to go, Redmond!
  • 11. Applets that are installed through an inappropriate mechanism.

    Internet Explorer and the whole Active Desktop/ActiveX/.NET mess is the posterboy, of course, but...

    * Safari thinks installers are "Safe files" to "open after download". Even if Apple's installer has a redundant check for installers running shell scripts during the setup this is just dumb.

    * Safari installs Dashboard apps directly... *say what*?

    * Firefox, to pick on the geek chic flavor of the month, requires an extension to allow you to install extensions from the file system... it *only* wants you to install extensions from the Internet otherwise. Oh, sure, they have the mother and father of all annoying dialogs to keep you from doing it accidentally, but I'd still rather download the file and install it myself. I'm still boggled over this one.
  • phil
    WORST EVER...

    The Cisco VPN client uninstall removes /opt. ALL OF IT.

    So, if you had darwinports, and you tried to uninstall the Cisco VPN client, you don't have either.
  • Wow, this is a great post ;) I can second most of the points and wanna add some more. i definitely hate when i have to reboot. i dont get why i have to. even if there is a system upgrade apple should manage to get it done without rebooting. just copy the ideas and methods known to every server administrator. you cant reboot if your server has to be up 24/7.

    ok, next thing which really bugs me is the requirement to enter admin-password. but this has been mentioned before.

    and a real show-stopper is this stupid Adobe Acrobat Reader. you first download the package. than it is an installer, which installs an installer which again connects to the internet to download the final application. come on guys, this is somehow the most difficult and stupid method out there. ok, probably they use it to get as much information about you and your system as possible, but still... it sux
  • I just today encountered something else that sucks in HP's printer software, which I described in a previous comment.

    As if installing unremovable items on your Dock ((5), above) wasn't bad enough, the Dock icon works in a completely nonstandard way. If you click on the icon while the app is running-- even with the LEFT mouse button (the only mouse button for most Mac users)-- it pops up a menu full of possible actions to take. This would be normal with the right mouse button or with a control-click, but to have the menu pop up on the left button is completely different from the way the Dock is supposed to work, and it just drives me up the wall.
  • Full Tilt Poker just came out with a mac client which is great...but they screwed up royally on the installer. The download (dmg) weighs in at 8MB. There is just an Installer VISE installer in the dmg that asks for an admin password to run. The installer then proceeds to install to just /Applications/. After about 6 minutes it finally finishes. The app zipped up is only 5.6MB! Why didn't they just do that? Then you wouldn't have to go through a 10 minute process to get the damn thing installed. Stupid!
  • sjk
    The Palm Desktop installer is still a POS.
  • My vote goes to StickyBrain 3's installer. There was a VT feedback that went into the problems in detail: http://www.versiontracker.com/php/feedback/arti...

    First it asks for the Admin password which is always suspicious. Then after installing, it insists on rebooting. Not quite the Mac OS X experience most people are looking for. I really dislike rebooting - I'd rather have that reserved for OS level updates only.

    Just tried out StickyBrain 4 and it still asks for the Admin password and when you cancel, it says "The software to be installed requires Administrator or higher level access privileges." I think they've made progress because the Version History notes that "New StickyBrain installer no longer requires a restart".
  • I like QuickSilver too - but I really dislike the silly filename with greek characters in it.
  • Bah, I like Quicksilver! :)
  • HP's printer software, at least the bundle for use with my OfficeJet:

    (1) Uses InstallerVISE.

    (2) Forces you to quit all other applications (how very Mac OS 8).

    (3) Launches a postinstall app that won't work unless the printer is connected to the computer, which is a pain in the ass if you want to use printer sharing for computers in different rooms. (There's a TCP/IP option at this stage, but it only looks for printers with their own Ethernet ports, not USB printers shared by Mac OS X).

    (4) Postinstall wizard also wants to take you to the HP web site, and on a product tour, unless you deselect the options.

    (5) Installs apps on your Dock-- apps that WILL NOT GO AWAY. Seriously, drag them off, and the next time you reboot, they come back.

    And finally...

    (6) Software fails mysteriously on a regular basis, refusing to work normally again until reinstalled (i.e. repeat 1-5 periodically)
  • Ok, here's one.
    "TWAIN Driver and EPSON Scan Utility v2.65A"

    it comes down as "epson11390.sea.hqx". Which has to first be decoded, then you have to run the .sea (self-extracting installer), which places a folder on your desktop which now has "EPSON Scan Installer" inside it.

    I don't mind the installer, you sort of need it for print drivers... but 4 steps to install the thing when it should just take two with a .dmg? (decode, extract, open folder, double click install vs open dmg, double click installer ).
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