Case Study 7 - Installing Windows Media Player 9

Windows Media Player for the Macintosh is a bundle of joy. For us, anyway.

Welcome to Windows Media Player 9 for Macintosh. Welcome to the world of anachronisms, since the installer is an executable wrapped up in a MacBinary file. Rather strange, as even Microsoft’s Mac OS 8–9 software came as disc images.

The authentication process is also amusing, since it wants me to give the installer rights to modify itself:

I thought the idea of the installer was to modify the system, not the installer? And note that “InstallerVISE” is not the name of the installer bundle, so at this point the user has to trust the machine that “InstallerVISE” (with a space missing, note) is a program in genuine need of elevated privileges. Never mind that there are no provisions for installing for just the current user. Naturally. I think the world would be a better place without Installer VISE, and it certainly has no place in OS X.

The best sign of trouble however was when I noticed that it takes two installers to install it:

And the date. 2003? Good grief. Mac Media Player is more out of date than Linux Flash Player.

Then we get the list of languages in which we can read the license. It does not include Chinese but I am detecting a subversive plot to sneak Chinese text in anyway:

Whereas in this case, I just have to say, “Bork! Bork! Bork!”:

What worries me the most is not just that the installer draws a Mac OS 9 progress bar, but that it is actually possible to draw a Mac OS 9 progress bar in Mac OS X in the first place.

iCab 2 however managed to also draw Mac OS 9 buttons in forms in Mac OS X. I suppose it quite nicely complements being shipped as a MacBinary download in the first place.