Rui CarmoTo my surprise, Citrix recently released an Intel version of their Mac OS X client. That is the good bit.
Now, I live inside Citrix at work and crafted my very own Dashboard widget to be able to work from home using my Macs atop a 3G connection, so this was pretty exciting.
However, here’s what happened when I ran the installer on my nice little MacBook:
Seem normal to you?
Well, here’s a hint: Internet Explorer for the Mac is no more. It’s been (effectively) dead for years, and (just in case you aren’t clear on that) there has never been an Intel version, nor have any Intel Macs ever shipped with Internet Explorer.
Hello? Anybody home?
So it was no surprise to me whatsoever that, even considering that they didn’t bother to change the wording, the installer itself actually doesn’t work - it fails with an error, most likely because it fails to ask for administrative privileges properly.
Worse still, the installer lets you pick your own folder to install to, but then it refuses to use it, whether you create a new one or not.
In a way, it’s sad to see that they bothered to recompile the client, but that they still seem not to understand Mac OS X enough to change the installer wording or do basic tests of the installation procedure.
All it would take is for them to try it once under a non-administrative account or to a specific folder, so it isn’t as if I’m asking for anything tricky here… The vast majority of applications I install these days know how to ask for the administrative password.
I suppose I’ll try it again when Citrix shows they know the first thing about Macs. Until then, I’ll keep using my Dashboard widget, which not only installs properly, but also does seamless mode.
Who knows, with Dashcode now officially out, I might even get around to doing an improved version.
P.S.: Yes, I would report these two issues (wording and installer failure), if it were feasible to do so without having a Citrix support account. There doesn’t seem to be a way for “regular” users to do it.
Update: Just to make things clear -
The fact that the installer does not attempt to elevate privileges when running as a non-admin user means it’s broken.
Yes, it will work if you use your default user account (the one that is created automatically), because that account has unrestricted access. But the installer should (like many other installers) work correctly when run by a non-admin account, and ask for an admin username and password.