> If your mates had names and there was a button on your phone, one for each acquaintance by name, you wouldn't need a way of looking them up.
Which you realistically don't, hence the point of the comparison.
> executive summary is that xcopy installs work very well IME.
The point isn't the initial install, it's the subsequent lookups (including update, uninstallation, etc.) when you have a bunch of programs to deal with. When you're dealing with 1 program, you can treat it like your pet. But when you're dealing with 50, you can't do that anymore. You need to realize you have cattle and adjust accordingly.
Phone numbers are nothing like programs. The comparison is false.
> The point isn't the initial install, it's the subsequent lookups (including update, uninstallation, etc.).
Well perhaps, but if you can delete a program by literally deleting the file, and update it literally by replacing it then you are onto a good thing - unix-like simplicity. Dependencies may be a problem, or not.
> Phone numbers are nothing like programs. The comparison is false.
That wasn't the comparison in the first place.
Finding the location of the program and its uninstaller is very much like an address or phone number lookup. Updating it is like updating an address book. And you need a database to maintain it all and find what you need, and something has to update that database. That's one major thing an installer does.
Which you realistically don't, hence the point of the comparison.
> executive summary is that xcopy installs work very well IME.
The point isn't the initial install, it's the subsequent lookups (including update, uninstallation, etc.) when you have a bunch of programs to deal with. When you're dealing with 1 program, you can treat it like your pet. But when you're dealing with 50, you can't do that anymore. You need to realize you have cattle and adjust accordingly.