Mac OS X Lion to Bring iOS-Like Uninstall Process for Mac App Store Apps

Whatever happened to Command-Delete?

....this is starting to look like Aero in Windows Vista.

SEE ANY SIMILARITIES?

Image (http://thecustomizewindows.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/How-to-remove-the-confirmation-prompt-to-delete-any-file-in-Windows-7-2.png)

It's a dialogue box for christ sake. :rolleyes:

This concept might seem alien to a lot of MacRumours users, but being a 'switcher', the method of deleting any app on OS X currently seems very ad hoc. I've been a mac user now for about 4 years and yet the idea of having to delete an app by dragging it to the trash seems very... strange. You never know if you've deleted ALL of that program.

Microsoft have managed to get one thing right in Windows. A specific tool (Add/Remove Programs) to delete a program. That's something that I genuinely feel is lacking in OS X and this idea of clicking and holding in LaunchPad makes sense. It's imple enough: most users who own an iPhone will have no trouble in adopting this method. And what's more, it makes it instantly accessible to anyone who uses a mac. In addition, it goes a step further than Microsoft. It avoids making more novice users from having to delve in to a complex window of settings. A step in the right direction? I think so!

So personally, I think this is a very simple yet very effective change to make to OS X and should be a welcome sign of the things to come in Lion!

No, Microsoft have not got it right. There should be no need for a specific tool to uninstall applications. applications should be self-contained and be deletable with the press of a button…

Many applications work this way on Mac, some developers still put related files into various other locations though unfortunately...

Hmm..that'll feel odd...

Hold down for 2(ish) seconds
click 'X'
click 'ok'.

OR

Drag to trash...

Seems like change for the sake of change. Hardly a groundbreaking new feature.

This concept might seem alien to a lot of MacRumours users, but being a 'switcher', the method of deleting any app on OS X currently seems very ad hoc. I've been a mac user now for about 4 years and yet the idea of having to delete an app by dragging it to the trash seems very... strange. You never know if you've deleted ALL of that program.

Microsoft have managed to get one thing right in Windows. A specific tool (Add/Remove Programs) to delete a program. That's something that I genuinely feel is lacking in OS X and this idea of clicking and holding in LaunchPad makes sense. It's imple enough: most users who own an iPhone will have no trouble in adopting this method. And what's more, it makes it instantly accessible to anyone who uses a mac. In addition, it goes a step further than Microsoft. It avoids making more novice users from having to delve in to a complex window of settings. A step in the right direction? I think so!

So personally, I think this is a very simple yet very effective change to make to OS X and should be a welcome sign of the things to come in Lion!

When I switched (back in 2002), the hardest thing in this respect was getting it through my head that that one icon sitting in the /Applications folder really is the whole app (*for well-behaved drag-install apps). Yes, you have "tools" like AppCleaner which delete all the prefs and user files for an app as well, obliterating any trace that the app was ver on your system, but those are just prefs. If the app itself is removed, the prefs are just text (or sometimes binary compressed) files sitting on the hard drive. They don't matter.

This is in absolute contrast to Windows where any app worth its salt comes with an installer, which spreads unknowable components throughout the hard drive and changes various settings everywhere in the system. Of course you need another automated tool to (sometimes) undo all those changes.

Since 2002, the trend in Mac software has been a lot of large installers (the majority are well-behaved drag-install apps, but I see installers on apps which really shouldn't need an opaque installer at all). OS X doesn't have a good answer for those kinds of apps, and it is indeed messy.

The App Store, however, essentially moves us back to a compartmentalized app workspace which can be removed as automatically as it is laid down.

I guess that's way easier than dragging it to the trash?

They could have simplified the whole process in the following way:


* Hover the mouse pointer over an app in launchpad.
* Right click -> contextual menu OR popup with get info and delete options.

OR

* Hover the mouse pointer over an app in launchpad.
* Delete and info buttons appear below the app. Click to apply.

Both sound more logical and intuitive than this.