[czeky]

hi all, i just like to know if it is better to install applications in panthers application folder, or to have dedicated partition or HD just for software, because of fragmentation, system response etc..

many thanx

czeky

[wataru]

Fragmentation is not an issue, especially in Panther.

The main (only, in my opinion) reason to put your apps on a separate partition or disk is so that you can wipe your system and reinstall at will. That said, I don't keep my apps separate from the system apps.

[TheTraveller]

I keep my apps on a separate partition, yeah. It does indeed come in very handy when I blow out the partition where Mac OS X lives. I put aliases to Apple's applications in my Applications partition. Works fine, but putting all your apps in Apple's folder works fine too, and I guess some apps won't function correctly (provide their services?) unless they're in the system's Applications folder.

[vinster]

Originally posted by czeky:
hi all, i just like to know if it is better to install applications in panthers application folder, or to have dedicated partition or HD just for software, because of fragmentation, system response etc..

many thanx

czeky

Good question czeky.

A: You should install applications in the Applications folder in one of OS X's four file-system domains. This is because the Finder searches these domains and extracts information relating to the applications (i.e. the application's services (service menu), the app's supported file types, etc.).

If applications are stored in another area of the file system or on another partition, then OS X may not recognise some of the application's features mentioned above. See how the finder collects application information for details.

Also, installers and application updaters (especially Apple's) may not be able find previous versions and, therefore, fail to install an update. I remember posts about users messing up their Mail.app during a system update because they moved it from the default location.