[Bf-committers] RfE: Better OS X support for the official blender binaries

Ton Roosendaal ton at blender.org
Sun Nov 4 11:31:10 CET 2012


Hi,

1) DMG or zip?
Here's my take: you open the zip, and yo can use Blender immediately. You can drag it to the Application folder on the list view easily, or to any other location you want. The unzipped folders allow you to keep different releases around too.
Disk images also cannot be deleted  or stored (it needs special eject command even). Our zip also contains extras (Blender player, other files) interesting for people to check on...

Most of all: the core philosphy of Blender is that it should run without any install requirement. You can download the zip, and use Blender from the extracted folder for as long you need it. I know of Blender users in studios and companies who don't have the rights to install software themselves even (in Dreamworks, Lockheed Martin, etc). I prefer not to communicate to users that they should install Blender anywhere, it's up to them to decide it.

It seems to me that the main argument for dmg is just 'convention' - looks nicer integrated. That's a pro... but the cons weight more for me :)

2) I was contacted long ago by Apple for this, will send them a followup how to get this sorted out.

-Ton-

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation   ton at blender.org    www.blender.org
Blender Institute   Entrepotdok 57A  1018AD Amsterdam   The Netherlands

On 3 Nov, 2012, at 11:13, Jochen Schmitt wrote:

> Hallo,
> 
> I have try out blender on OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) and have
> somme suggestions to improve the user experience of the
> official blender binaries:
> 
> 1.) For OS X users it may be better to distribute the official
> binaries as an DMG file. This files are commpressed simular the
> ZIP files. In addition this file should contains a sym link
> to the /Applications directory. That allows the user to 
> install blender esiely by dragging the Blender.app file on
> the Applications folder sym link.
> 
> 2.) It may be nice if you can sign the binaries with a
> dveloper ID. That may improve the user experience on the 
> first start of blender. If the binaries was not signed, you
> have to start the binarie in the /Applications folder over
> the context menu holding the CTRL-key during you are select
> the Open menu item. This issue is new due the introduction of
> gatekeeper in OS X 10.8.
> 
> As a reference you may have a look to the official binaries
> of Firefox for OS X.
> 
> Best Regards:
> 
> Jochen Schmitt
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