10.2.2 changes how apps are updated

[jove]

I noticed that 10.2.2 changes how Apple apps are updated. Previously, if the the app wasn't in the right spot, the updater stuck updated portions of the app in the original spot anyway. You had to put the package back together to update the app properly.

I've organized my apps in my own fashion, with subfolders and the like. So after the 10.2.2 update I restarted my computer and went into my Apps folder to fix my apps. There was nothing to fix. I can't tell if the apps are updated or not. How do you know with all the stuff that's in the package?

Anyway, Apple's site says that it only updates apps if they have not been relocated or deleted.

So, I suppose my apps haven't been updated.

How am I supposed to update them now????

[symphonix]

You could drop them back into the Applications folder, then download the stand-alone updater from apple.com/macosx/downloads. It may or may not work.

[boi]

nevermind. i need to learn to read. he's right. just move them and use the standalone. happened to me with 10.2.1.

[jove]

I already ran the updater (with apps in the "wrong" places). Can I run it again?

[chemistry_geek]

Instead of moving the Apps around like you did messing with high and mighty Apple-assigned locations of the Apps, why not consider making a "Virtual" directory of your App locations? This preserves the original locations as they were intended to be by Apple while providing you with a way to organize your directories the way that makes sense to you. Make a new directory in your user folder called "My Apps" or something you would prefer and just place Aliases to those Apps in the directories you designate. I've done this from day 1 using Mac OS X because I read the documentation from Apple that said "Thou shalt not mess with thy System Folder, or locations of Applications and Utilities, or any other hidden files of the system".

[fryke]

I know, I know, we're all individualists. But why bother with the original applications and their locations? Just keep them in 'Applications' and 'Utilities', believe me: There's a reason why they're called like that. You can use /Users/YOURNAME/Applications for your own apps, even. And with a nice launcher application (might I propose the Dock by Apple or LaunchBar?) you don't even need to _know_ where they're located.

[scruffy]

Originally posted by fryke
I know, I know, we're all individualists. But why bother with the original applications and their locations? Just keep them in 'Applications' and 'Utilities', believe me: There's a reason why they're called like that. You can use /Users/YOURNAME/Applications for your own apps, even. And with a nice launcher application (might I propose the Dock by Apple or LaunchBar?) you don't even need to _know_ where they're located.

All well and good, unless you happen to have 60 or 100 apps installed. /Applications/Sound, /Applications/Graphics, /Applications/Editors, etc. It makes things a lot easier to find. And this is my computer - I will $#%! well put my apps where I want them. Would it be all that hard to pop up a dialog - "blahdeblah.app was not found in its expected location. Please locate it."?

[chemistry_geek]

scruffy,

What fryke and I are trying to tell everyone is that there are reasons people should abide by Apple's rules regarding the locations of applications and utilities. Mac OS X ≠ Mac OS 9. These are two very different beasts. Mac OS X's UNIX underpinings use UNIX symbolic links which are similar to Aliases but are not the same. If some program depends on another and goes looking for it where it is supposed to be and can't find it, "problems" may happen, instability occurs, systems crash, data gets corrupted, and you're a REALLY unhappy camper. It makes sense to leave things as they were intended and to substitute Aliases pointing to the actual application locations rather than to rearrange the applications into some order that makes sense to you. Think of it this way, everything you see on your screen is a LIE! Yes, Apple is LYING to us all! You see a graphical representation of the files and directories in the computer. There aren't any windows in an operating system, it's a representation of a directory. There aren't any icons in a computer, they are a graphical representation only for the user to easily recognize a file at a glance. Extending this representation to organize aliases pointing to files and directories is no different, and in fact is safer than rearranging the files themselves. What happens if you accidentally delete the alias? You just create a replacement. Delete the file and your going to have to reinstall from CD or download from the internet.

Apple is basing their new operating system on UNIX and this is what has been done since the beginning in UNIX, it is a standard, and Apple is going to follow standards. As the Slashdot folks commonly joke about the Mac folk, we will have to grow brains or suffer.

Apple has preserved as much as possible the traditional Macintosh experience with Aqua, purposely separating Aliases from UNIX symbolic links. We don't need to know how UNIX works, we just need to be aware that it has requirements and just follow the rules.

To show you just how twisted Mac OS 9 can be (I'm sure others here will chuckle after reading this), my brother complained (calls me all the time about problems with his computer) to me that he lost all of his MP3's when he reinstalled Mac OS 9 on his iMac. I told him that was impossible because the installer only rewrites the System folder. His reply was "well I lost everything, all my Quicken data too". I went over to his house some time after ward to see why this happened. It turns out ALL his MP3's were being stored in the "Apple Menu Items" folder inside his System Folder. He wanted to single click a song from the Apple Menu in Mac OS 9 to launch MacAMP. In fact, all his data was strewn all over inside his System Folder: he had files and folder located in the Extensions folder, the Preferences folder. He saved data whatever a program's first pick for a folder was. I couldn't believe what I saw. I YELLED AT HIM! NO! NO! NO! And promptly set him straight: You just don't do these things!