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How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

(twitter.com)
796 points _Microft | 2 comments | 31 Mar 20 11:41 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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lultimouomo ◴[31 Mar 20 12:08 UTC] No.22736730[source]▶
I think this also shows how macOS has been training users to enter their password in random dialogs that have absolutely nothing that identifies them as being legit OS dialogs. The dialog that Zoom uses could very well be sending the credentials to a remote server, and the user would be none the wiser.
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Wowfunhappy ◴[31 Mar 20 12:44 UTC] No.22736941[source]▶
Note that in this case, it's still a legit OS dialog. Preflight scripts are very much built into the macOS pkg format, they're just not intended to be used like this.
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danieldk ◴[31 Mar 20 13:02 UTC] No.22737061[source]▶
I never understood why Apple still supports the pkg format. It seems a half-baked leftover from the 2000s and even then I was already surprised that there is no way to uninstall things through the macOS GUI. I am not sure if this has changed (I try to avoid pkg files and use Homebrew cask to uninstall such packages), but IIRC you had to list the files with pkgutil on the command-line, remove stuff by hand and then --forget the package.

They should just kill the format. Everything should just be drag to install, drag to trash to remove.

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drampelt ◴[31 Mar 20 14:30 UTC] No.22737837{3}[source]▶
> Everything should just be drag to install, drag to trash to remove.

I wish it were that easy, most apps leave files in other places on your computer like ~/Library that will never get cleaned up if you just move the app to trash.

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1. Wowfunhappy ◴[31 Mar 20 14:55 UTC] No.22738101{4}[source]▶
As much as this bothers me because of who I am, I don't think it's a real problem. Those files shouldn't take up significant space unless the developer is doing something stupid.

It might be nice if macOS had some sort of automatic cleanup routine when an app is trashed, but that would either require showing the user an extra dialog (a la AppCleaner's) or introducing an opaque system which could potentially lead to data loss.

replies(1): >>22738249 #
2. danieldk ◴[31 Mar 20 15:10 UTC] No.22738249[source]▶
Indeed, data outside the application folder usually consists of a preferences plist and saved application state. Of course, there could be caches as well, which could take up a fair amount of disk space.

But I think the primary argumentation in favor of what macOS does now on drag-to-trash is that the users preferences are preserved, for when they install an application again.