Sunday, September 06, 2015

Who says Mac OS X does not need uninstallers

I have heard people say that Windows needs uninstallers for DSW because of design flaws, whereas Mac OS X does not need uninstallers because of its perfect UNIX-ish design.



False!



Evidence: uninstalling the "Basis Sync.app", now that I am no longer using my Basis B1 watch (R.I.P.).



The web page link says, paraphrasing: "To uninstall move the 'Basis Sync.app' from the /Applications folder to Trash.  Also, go and remove support files from ~/Library/Application Support/Basis Sync."



The two separate steps would be encapsulated by an uninstaller.



But furthermore:  trying to move the 'Basis Sync.app' fails, because the app is running - I was starting it by default.  (I guess Apple has put in a Windows like interlock; normal UNIX would blindly unlink a running program.)  Option-Command-Escape does not show 'Basis Sync.app' as running.  However, standard UNIX ps does, and I can kill it, and then remove the app.



I know how to do this.  But how many non-UNIX users would?   My wife?  My mother?



Automating - creating an uninstaller - forces the software vendor to really know how to uninstall.

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