If it’s a .sit or a .tar.gz file, you’ll wind up with an installed folder. If it’s a .dmg, you’ll get a mounted drive on your desktop. Generally, double-clicking on the drive will give you a window that tells you to drag the image to where you want the software.

Installers are good for 3 things: 1) Installing stuff that has to go in places other than the application (Windows registry, Mac OS patches), 2) Forcing the user to reboot, and 3) Controlling software distribution (it’s easier to lock down an installation procedure than a disk image).

It’s interesting to see Scott’s Mac frustration; I used to see it all the time dealing with clients. Once you’ve learned the Windows Way, there’s a lot you have to unlearn to be comfortable on the Mac. My experience suggests the reverse is not true, although I can’t hazard a good reason why Mac users seem to have an easier time going both ways.

The CFO of the company I used to work for had switched (we all used PowerBooks), and I bought him a copy of Crossing Platforms: A Macintosh/Windows Phrasebook, which he said helped him make the transition more easily.

And the logic of making the Mac more Windows-like to accomodate switchers undercuts the whole point of switching, right? I see your point, but still.

Seriously. The switch transition from Windows to a Mac is NOT trivial. For all the vaunted usability, Macs are as idiosyncratic as PCs at times. Here’s an example. A Mac window can only be sized from the lower right corner, not all sides as is the norm in *nix and *indows. But the dock often obscures windows. So how do you resize it?

I’d strongly encourage Apple to setup a human factors observation lab and watch people actually try and do the switch. It’s the little things that drive people freaking nuts. Stuff like that. The need to constantly ctrl+click. The fact that delete doesn’t work in the Finder to delete a file. There are like 50 or 60 utterly annoying things that constantly remind you “We’re Mac. We’re Better But We’re Different”. I hate to say that Apple needs to become more like Windows but I suspect that Switch will do well initially and then hit a brick wall as it tries to scale past the early adopters.

Oh and >> The only difference is that most people have stuffit set up to auto-delete .tar.gz or .sit after decompressing them, but that .dmg files remain when the image is mounted.

Huh? I ended up with a desktop covered with .sit, .tar, .gz and .dmg files after instally just a handful of things. I mean covered. I take it this is an advanced user option?

And this whole disc image mounting thing is for the birds. The birds.

But thanks again John.

Steven and John carry on a brief conversation about DMG (disk image) files on Mac OS X. The comments are interesting as well, so read up, boy (girl)! Personally, my software company distributes software on DMG, and we haven’t had any apparent lost sale…