I can´t install my own product
November 25 2005
I said to myself, I'm not going to do it. The Mac is a "home" computer, and I don't want to "work" from it. I want to do the fun stuff, like this:
But after a couple of days of fun, I thought it might be useful to be able to blog from the new iMac. So, I did what you would do -- I surfed over to the downloads on IBM developerWorks:Lotus and downloaded the trial of Lotus Notes 6.5 for Mac. Easy enough.
Problems cropped up immediately. The download comes down in .HQX format -- requiring Stuffit to unpack (which is not installed by default -- I learned that like the PC, .ZIP is the standard compression format for Mac users now). Stuffit has a brain-dead installer, too, and requires a Mac reboot for proper operation (strange, I thought this was a Mac!); I tried to unpack the .HQX several times before learning this. After reboot, things weren't much better -- the HQX unpacked partially, then asked for a "decryption passphrase". What the heck?
I tried both the 6.0.x and 6.5.x versions of the Notes Mac trial -- neither would unpack. Thus, I'm blogging back on my Thinkpad right now. I've installed other programs this morning -- Firefox and Skpe were both relatively painless. And most everything about the Mac has been easy so far. Just not my own product. And yes, I know, once I get it installed, I get to deal with font issues and all the rest.
Guys and gals, Macheads of the world, I feel your pain, no need to pile on. In the meantime, can you tell me the secret handshake to install my own product?
Post a Comment
- 2
Jean-Francois Arseneault http://blog.arseneault.ca | 11/25/2005 12:10:02 PM
Ed, tell me that you have the power to address this internally, so that our product teams can learn to package Lotus Notes so it's as brain-dead simple to install as other Mac apps: a single .dmg file that once mounted, provides drag-and-drop ease to the 'Applications' folder, like the rest of the Mac world ... please?
- 3
vowe http://vowe.net | 11/25/2005 12:41:12 PM
Looks like someone has downloaded 6.0.5 for you, extracted the .hqx, repacked as .zip and uploaded here: { Link }
- 4
Paul Bunnell | 11/25/2005 12:55:21 PM
YES...god what a pain....
I had to get a full version of Notes and then modify setting in stuffit....as Im on my way to Singapore...cant tell ya what exactly...but will when back....Paul
- 5
Gus Mueller http://gusmueller.com/ | 11/25/2005 1:17:20 PM
Yes, a dmg is the way to go. .hqx just points out to your users how non-mac you guys are :)
- 6
Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 11/25/2005 1:50:01 PM
We're up and running...more soon
- 7
Thom Rosario | 11/28/2005 7:17:24 AM
Glad you're up and running. I was going to recommend going over to the PassPort site and getting a copy from there, instead.
On a side note, .dmg isn't quite as user-friendly as I'd like it to be. I've seen several new-to-Mac users scratch their heads at the strange disk image icon that appears on their desktop, only to ask me where their software went after they rebooted.
Personally, I'd like to see more software distro'd in .zip format. Users already understand what to do w/ a folder when it's placed on their desktop -- mounted disk images seem to confuse them.
- 8
Gregg Albert | 11/28/2005 11:39:58 AM
Wonder if the group resp for the install picked the default fonts....
- 9
Tim Rand | 11/28/2005 3:32:38 PM
@5 - Gus and others... Don't forget that Notes 6.5 and older still install on Mac OS 9. As such, the installer has to be multi-OS for the Mac. Let us please THANK Lotus for continuing to support older Mac installs, something that some vendors no longer do. However, its about time that we move on.
- 10
Gjøran Sæther http://demoscene.proteque.org | 12/14/2005 4:38:31 AM
Did you come around to get pass this problem? what did you change in stuffit to make it be able to unpack the notes-installer?
- 11
marco foellmer www.ebf.de | 5/27/2006 8:22:05 AM
I was follow You and now I have migrated my Thinkpad to MacBookPro, my wife replaced the Windows XP against a MacMini and now we downgraded the 7.0.1 Notes Client back to 6.5.5.
We would really really like to see a Domino Administrator and Domino Designer for MacOSX.
Thank You for this great report.
Ciao Marco
- 12
marco foellmer http://www.ebf.de | 8/3/2006 4:39:53 PM
I would be happy to have mac osx client for 7.0.2 now, the mac 6.5.5 is really really buggy.
cheers marco
I believe Paul Bunnell had similar issues when he tried to install the client on his new Mac. With regards HQX files, you *may* not need Stuffit for those -- the native BOMArchiveHelper utility might handle HQX, can't remember.
However, that's the easy bit. This "decryption passphrase" is a new one to me -- you may need to *cough* call IBM support on that.
And isn't that a lovely shot of vowe!