Mar 25 2020 06:03 AM
I'm curious to know why Edge on Mac doesn't have Online installer. neither insider nor stable versions.
is it an OS limitation inside Mac that makes it impossible or something else?
Mar 29 2020 04:48 PM
@HotCakeX Great question! I'll ask the mac team and loop back with you if they have any insights.
Fawkes (they/them)
Project & Community Manager - Microsoft Edge
Mar 30 2020 01:19 AM
Mar 31 2020 10:24 AM
Solution
Hello!
Thanks for the question! It is possible to have an online installer on the macOS platform but here's the reasons why we chose not to.
A majority of the apps on macOS platform use either a drag-and-drop DMG installer or a PKG. We currently use the PKG method. This method makes it difficult to write an online installer because you're relying on implementing the network stack and installation stack all in a shell/bash script, which I think is difficult for stability and error handling. A custom installer could be written, but that would be foreign to the platform, and I believe would not be friendly to an average macOS user. Other Microsoft products (i.e. Office, Teams, VSCode) use an offline installer on macOS, and not an online installer as well.
Thanks!
Michael Chang
Software Engineer - Microsoft Edge
Mar 31 2020 10:42 AM
Thank you very much for the thorough answer!
Mar 31 2020 10:24 AM
Solution
Hello!
Thanks for the question! It is possible to have an online installer on the macOS platform but here's the reasons why we chose not to.
A majority of the apps on macOS platform use either a drag-and-drop DMG installer or a PKG. We currently use the PKG method. This method makes it difficult to write an online installer because you're relying on implementing the network stack and installation stack all in a shell/bash script, which I think is difficult for stability and error handling. A custom installer could be written, but that would be foreign to the platform, and I believe would not be friendly to an average macOS user. Other Microsoft products (i.e. Office, Teams, VSCode) use an offline installer on macOS, and not an online installer as well.
Thanks!
Michael Chang
Software Engineer - Microsoft Edge