> I'm not sure what you mean by "before". It's been this way for SEVEN YEARS! > Microsoft introduced the Microsoft User Data folder back in 1999 (or maybe > it was even 1998) when Outlook Express 5.0.2 and OS 9 came out. It was a > huge improvement over the old way of dong things on the Mac, where data and > support files were generally inside the application's own folder. That meant > that when you update the app, you could really lose all your data, > permanently. (A few apps put stuff inside the System Folder/Preferences/, > which was crazier.) > > Microsoft was the first to make this improvement on the Mac - they led the > way. It became particularly useful with OS 9's Multiple Users (the precursor > of multi-user support in OS X), where every user had his/her own Documents > folder, etc. That's why they put it inside the Documents folder - there was > no better place in those days. Palm, Adobe and a few others followed > Microsoft's lead, way back then. > > When Apple introduced OS X, they created a new place for such things: the > Application Support folder in each user's Library folder. In some ways, that > might be a netter location, since that's the place people expect it now. On > the other hand, your Entourage Database is data - like documents. And in > the early days of OS X, before things had settled down, they were trying to > keep some compatibility with what people knew from OS 9 (Entourage 2001 had > used the same MUD folder as Outlook Express from its inception in 2000). > > It's really just you who didn't know about it. Perhaps you're new to > Entourage? The MUD folder has always needed to remain in a Documents folder, > or an alias needed to be there, since it was invented 6 or more years ago. > That's a pretty venerable time in computer-land.
While I agree, it is an improvement over how MS email used to work on the mac ages ago, there is still something wrong here. Quite literally, a friend of mine in mac repair pays his meals a few times a week based on users mucking around with the MUD folder. It further comes up on this list enough to be a strong re-occurring theme. Microsoft needs to take notice of this, just because it has been that way for years, in my humble opinion, does not mean it is the correct way. Office help is dumb to "MUD" or "User Data", not that a user would or should know that terminology. If I can make an alias, and move the original file anywhere I want to move it to, and that alias will still work, I am making a guess here, but I am betting Apple has a way to do that with files as well. I actually know you can, I have read articles on how to properly deal with this sort of thing. The MUD folder needs to be re-thought. I hear all to often, "yeah, I switched to mail.app cause my email just disappeared all the time in E-rage". I know it is still there, just a misplaced MUD folder. But time has come to fix this so the user can do as they please. I don't like being told where I need to store my files. If it is imperative to an apps operation that its data folders be in a certain spot, put them somewhere, where the user will not likely move them. You don't see system pref panes breaking cause they are loosely scattered in ~/Documents, MS MUD folder should be the same way. -- ------------------------------------------------------------- Scott Haneda Tel: 415.898.2602 <http://www.newgeo.com> Novato, CA U.S.A. -- To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.letterrip.com/> old-archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.boingo.com/>
