Allume Systems Just Don't Get It
I can sum this post up in one quick paragraph. When you download Stuffit Expander it comes on a nice standard .dmg file. And it installs a single application. In order to connect those two things, Allume have used a ‘Stuffit Installer’ Application. That’s incredibly broken.
Take NetNewsWire as an example, it too comes in a .dmg file and installs a single application. When you download NetNewsWire the disk image is mounted and then the application is automatically copied to your disk and the .dmg file is automatically deleted. It’s not magic, it’s just efficient usage of the capabilities Apple has built into Mac OS X.
Allume on the other hand have an actual installer application. And installer so old it draws text using QuickDraw. (Text drawn using QuickDraw gets the old AntiAliasing engine from OS9 — which is to say it looks like shit compared to Quartz-rendered text.)
It’s not 1995. Stuffit Installer has been surpassed by competing products at least twice. Either improve it enough that it can hold its own against Apple Installer and InstallerVISE or just put the poor thing out of its misery.
But, the Mac version of Expander is downright beautiful compared to the Windows version. Some might say all Windows apps are ugly, so I’ll just say that Expander is ugly even for a Windows app.
Stuffit Expander with Expander Enhancer was a really nice utility once upon a time. It was so indispensable Apple included it on the CD along with the Operating System. Apple doesn’t include Expander anymore, they don’t bundle Internet Explorer anymore either, which pretty much sums it up if you ask me.
