Copying Files
My wife’s ancient PC finally died; it was a $400 Gateway we bought many years ago. Fortunately the hard drive was OK, so here I am, transferring the files from the old hard drive to a different PC. This process takes forever and is really annoying when it comes to application migration.
Here’s something PC users might not realize about OSX: most apps are simply dropped into the applications directory. I assume that moving most apps from one Mac to another is as simple as copying these directories. (I could be wrong, my Mac hasn’t died yet, so I have not had to try this!)
This is certainly not the case on Windows, where each application builds a web of intricate registry references, requiring a fresh install when moving to a new PC. What a pain.
For most applications, the Windows Registry seems like a huge design flaw. Why does a simplistic application like Print Shop need the Registry at all? Can’t installation be as simple as unzipping into Program Files and storing user preferences under each user’s profile directory?
I’m done with my rant. I feel better. Files are still copying…this could be a long night.
I Confirm, just needs a copy.
Even worse, the mac does it for you at the install, it copies your old user folder and the apps that are not present by default with the installation ( like iLife’s or iWok’s for example ). When you have rebooted you have the exact same desktop as you used to have except on a new machine, gotta love it
(It evens setups your network like it used to be! )
The funnier is that in the real world you never really need to format/reinstall the mac so that great reinstall system is only used when you change of machine, where windows needs sometimes a reformat just for the “fun” of it…
Windows with such a system would be a far less pain in the butt than it is right now, i even think less people would consider switching if a brand new install of their windows would take 2 clicks and some time (which you wouldn’t need to spend next to the comp ) like on the mac.
But hey Microsoft is microsoft, they are already busy making the gui more weird and complex, they can’t do everything
( yeah i just reinstalled a machine and like you, I’m not feeling especially happy about the loss of time …. )
The Registry always struck me as a very convenient basket for all your eggs….
Yes, on the Mac everything an application needs is in the application bundle itself. If you need to move the app somewhere else, just copy it there. The user’s preferences are stored under ~/LIbrary/Preferences
BTW: you can also install apps in ~/Applications if you want to make them available only to that user.
Oh, I really miss Windows…NOT!!!!
I feel your pain. I just went through a similar exercise replacing a fried hard drive in a laptop. For some applications I literally gave up on trying to reinstall them because of license/key hurdles.
The problem with the Registry, in design terms, is this: they solved the wrong problem with INI files. In the move to Win95, MS saw three issues: (1) Too many INI files, scattered all over the place. (2) INI files too unstructured, limiting their flexibility. (3) The need to have different INI files for different users.
What they missed is that the solution to (1) isn’t to put all the INIs in one place, i.e. the Registry), but to put each of them in the right place, i.e. the application’s install directory.
In other words, the Registry itself is quite a useful idea for solving (2) and (3)… but there ought to be one “mini Registry” per application, not one humongous Registry per machine.
Just unzip or copy Apps, and user/apps specific settings is also perfectly well managed in Linux and Unixes.
The only ugly duckling OS is…
some large apps/suites (particularly the ones that use the installer to be installed) have stuff in either Library:Application Support or Users:USER_NAME:Library:Application Support.
Just some useful hints!
Visit http://www.10101software.co.nr for some free mac apps by me!