Is there an easier way to install and update on OSX?

I’ve installed LibreOffice on OSX by downloading from the website and manually installing. When I’m prompted to update, I repeat the same process.

On Linux, updates are handled by the package manager, which is much nicer.

Is there some easier way to do updates on OSX? Eg, via Homebrew or the App Store?

I agree. Whilst being able to just drag and drop an app bundle into the Applications folder is easy, there are numerous opensource programs on Mac which will do the update check/download/install upgrade routine for your automatically - VLC, Handbrake, Adium, Thunbderbird, Firefox to name but a few. With apps in the AppStore, the updates/upgrade also occur automatically once the user has accepted them. The fact that LibreOffice doesn’t propose this is a PITA for Mac users.

There are many criticism I could level at MacOS and the idiosyncratic manner in which various tasks are done on that platform, but installing and uninstalling applications is not one of them. Drag and drop to the Applications folder (to install) and to the bin (to uninstall) is about the easiest method on any platform.

On Linux, updates are handled by the package manager, which is much nicer.

This only applies if you are using distribution/PPA-sourced (i.e., effectively third-party packaged) versions of LO. If you download the website version (which is a method more comparable to how installation is done on MacOS) the process is slightly more involved i.e., for my flavours of GNU/Linux it involves uninstalling the old version (via package manager), unzipping the downloaded DEB, changing to the directory, and issuing sudo dpkg -i *.deb. Still not very complex though IMO.

That is the beauty of Linux. If using official repository or PPA it gets updated without involving any kind of effort from end-user. :slight_smile:

@L-user, agreed and I can’t see Apple, Microsoft, Google etc. taking on packaging of applications like LO any time soon. Even for a GNU/Linux distribution the provided version of LO may often be older than a user would like i.e., compared with that available from the website.