I just installed iWork ’09 trial and was surprised to see that Apple is still using this old, excruciatingly long installer.
I thought that this sort of thing was behind us. What happened to just dragging an item into the Applications folder?
This design is old. It came was modeled after installer from the Windows 3.1 era. You’ve seen it, the one that starts off, “The Install Wizard will now guide you through the setup process.” Gee thanks, now I know to roll up my sleeves. (How about if it just installed the software?)
Apple has been exemplary at questioning and slashing out wasteful steps. Apparently they haven’t gotten to this old thing.
I’ve noticed this seems to be persistent in applications that need to write to the root directory and require an administrator password. I don’t recall if I entered a password for iWork in particular, but that’s been my analysis.
I agree the experience is undesirable; however, is it acceptable if the requirement is security driven? Would a script requiring your password on first run be a better experience (assuming that’s a technical option)?
It’s okay to use an installer app. Just make it a one or two steps, not five or eight. (We don’t need a whole step up-front emotionally preparing us for the task.)
Better yet, just allow the app be dropped into the App folder, and on first launch, have it self-install the components it needs and relaunch.