Word v. X update

[TexasBob]

Hello,

I am running Word Office v. X from a user account without admin
rights. I installed without admin rights, but the 10.1.9 updater wants
admin rights. Does anyone know why the updater needs this? I cannot
image a single technically solid reason to need admin rights to update
a word processor. This is an issue of not trusting their skills,
rather than their intentions. Thanks.

Texas Bob

 

[TexasBob]

Huh?? You need admin rights to change or install *any* application in
the /Applications folder!

It is a question of write permissions. Word sprays files all over your
system like a tomcat in spring. For instance, if Word is installed in
/Applications, or the installer thinks that it might be, it justifiably
asks the person updating to offer Admin credentials before scribbling
all over the entries in /Applications. J Random (L)user should not have
write privs to /Applications.

That's the kind of thing that stops Macs from being slain by viruses.

Chill!

If any old user can install programs that can potentially scribble all
over the machine, or even all over other applications cowering in a
false sense of security inside /Applications, then there is a potential
a security problem.

Word's installations can and do make a right mess of your working
environment. (think Fonts) Be glad that you are asked by the OS before
polluting your working environment. Even if you are the machine's only
user, it serves as a warning to be careful. Where is the harm in that?

Thanks for your response.

I guess I did not make myself clear. I have a unix/Solaris/Linux
background and understand all of the account and permissions stuff. I
installed Word in my User account, not in the system-wide Applications
folder. Therefore I did not need Admin rights to install. This type of
practice is very common in unix-ish systems. Word is an allergen that
makes my machine sneeze so that is why I do it this way. Word cannot
sneeze outside my user account.

It just seems strange that an update installer would ask for something
the product installer did not need. What is the harm is asking for
permissions? Well, my copy of Word is totally within the user
environment. Everything they need to update is in my User Account. So
what are they installing? That's really all I need to know.

Apple supplies an installation list in each and every installer. Why
not MS?Again, this is not paranoia about intent, just a lack of trust
in the skills of the company most responsible for insecure operating
systems and application software.

 

[Elliott Roper]

Thanks for your response.

I guess I did not make myself clear. I have a unix/Solaris/Linux
background and understand all of the account and permissions stuff. I
installed Word in my User account, not in the system-wide Applications
folder. Therefore I did not need Admin rights to install. This type of
practice is very common in unix-ish systems. Word is an allergen that
makes my machine sneeze so that is why I do it this way. Word cannot
sneeze outside my user account.

It just seems strange that an update installer would ask for something
the product installer did not need. What is the harm is asking for
permissions? Well, my copy of Word is totally within the user
environment. Everything they need to update is in my User Account. So
what are they installing? That's really all I need to know.

Apple supplies an installation list in each and every installer. Why
not MS?Again, this is not paranoia about intent, just a lack of trust
in the skills of the company most responsible for insecure operating
systems and application software.

Word's installer puts Word in /Applications by default. Not
unreasonable so far, since that is Mac OS X etiquette.
I guess the updater is following the fashion.

Word very naughtily places a few things that should be in /Library or
even ~/Library trees into /Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/...

I note that it has flung updater logs in there too.

I'm not sure that placing Word in your ~/ tree is a good idea, but then
what do I know? I'm a VMS guy, so unix broad-brush arm-waving
permissions *always* look feeble to me.
If it didn't do that naughty stuff, it should, as pure read-only code,
live securely outside your, or anybody else's home directories. There
is no point allowing it to be scribbled over by a piece of feral
Python. /Applications is as good a hiding place as anywhere. If it is
all pure code, it *can't* sneeze.

Besides, the discipline of asking for Admin privs is in the same mould
as sudo for scary things. In this world of rampant malware, it does no
harm to take extra care when placing an executable on your system.

You final point "Where is the BOM? Why ain't it all in a pkg like a
properly designed program? Dunno. it looks sloppy to me too. I guess
there is too much historical baggage to let them pkg it up properly.

Some days, you can almost hear it creaking under its own weight, like a
gnarly old rhino.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I guess I did not make myself clear. I have a unix/Solaris/Linux
background and understand all of the account and permissions stuff. I
installed Word in my User account, not in the system-wide Applications
folder. Therefore I did not need Admin rights to install.

Everything they need to update is in my User Account. So
what are they installing? That's really all I need to know.

You know, I'm not sure they are installing anything. At what point in
the process did the question come up? I just ran AutoUpdate, and it
asks for admin permissions when I click Update, before it downloads, and
well before it searches my hard drive to find the actual applications to
update.

It may just be a sloppy set up that demands the admin rights before it
checks to see whether it actually needs them.

Daiya