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Having a local 'Applications' folder in each user's Home directory is almost essential when you want to back up each user's important files.
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Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983
T h e R o a d L e s s T r a v e l e d
Each OS X user needs a local 'Applications' folder to make backups a simple task
Dec. 24, 2003
By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2003, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2003, The Post-Standard
Windows refugees get an eyeful when they discover how easy it can be to install programs on a modern Mac. Programs will run from any location. You can simply drag the program or its folder to any handy folder and run it from there.
But doing that sort of thing can lead to problems later on. This week, at a time when many readers are setting up new Macs for the first time and many others are adding new software, I'll tell you how to make sure your programs are located in the best possible place.
As I described last week, Mac OS X 10.3 makes switching between users a simple matter. A second user can log onto an OS X 10.3 Mac without forcing the first user to log off. Programs the first user is running aren't touched; documents that user had open remain on the screen, and so on. Users can't mess up anything left open by others, either.
This method of switching quickly from one user to another is a blessing in a family with young children. Programs and files belonging to mom and dad will be safe when the kids log on with their own passwords.
But this can make life difficult for the administrator of a multi-user OS X Mac -- which, for families, is likely to be you. As the "administrator," you have to be able to back up important files belonging to each user. But how would you know which files to save unless each user puts them where you and your backup software can find them?
Documents usually don't cause a problem because files like that are sure to end up in the Home directory anyway, in one of the existing folders, where the "Administrator-Dad" or "Administrator-Mom" can find them. Even if they don't show up there, they'll be somewhere on the desktop, which is just a folder in the Home directory.
But alas, those of us who take care of Mac OS X computers as surrogate "admin" users aren't so lucky when it comes to applications. New users see an inviting folder called "Applications" in the dock or in some other handy place, and you can't blame them for thinking that's where their programs are supposed to go.
No way. User programs don't go there.
The main "Applications" folder is for the software everybody wants to use. It's for iPhoto and Safari, for example. You'll find Apple Mail there, along with Apple's DVD player, its calculator and a few dozen other programs on a typical OS X Mac that has been set up properly.
But user programs, the kind that Junior downloads when he's trying out a new interactive game, don't go in the main "Applications" folder. They go in the user's Home directory instead.
Ideally, the "Admin" user should create a folder called "Applications" inside the Home folder belonging to each user. (Attention, Admin-Dads and Admin-Moms! Log on as each user and create the local "Applications" folder while logged on that way. Otherwise, you might inadvertently block users from getting into their own folders.)
Having a local "Applications" folder in each user's Home directory for all the software users personally install isn't just a neat thing to do; it's almost essential when you want to back up each user's important files.
For example, when Sis has all her documents and applications in her own Home directory, all that's needed to back up all her files is a simple copying operation. You simply drag her Home folder to a blank CD or DVD and click the "Record" button.
A warning, however: Don't show this sort of one-step backup method to your neighborhood Windows users. Windows doesn't work that way. No sense hurting their feelings.
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