No wonder their uninstallation instructions[1] are hilariously complicated. They somewhat-helpfully point to an actual separate uninstaller package to download, but it doesn't even remove all the things mentioned on this page.
Having to download a separate uninstaller or having complicated uninstallation instructions does not in any way, shape, or form indicate there’s anything funny going on with the pkg installer. Any pkg installer (or any app bundle, if you want to completely remove all traces of it) would require a separate uninstaller to install, and any pkg installing to multiple directories will be complicated to uninstall, not even considering user data. lsbom | xargs rm is about as close as a native uninstallation method, but you will have user data and possibly things like launch agents left behind.
The uninstallation page basically describes how to completely uninstall any nontrivial Mac application.
That seems pretty ridiculous coming from Linux, where the vast majority of software will be installed via a package manager, making clean removal trivial.
Under windows, I would consider any software that requires a separate removal tool to be suspect. Software wanting you to download a separate tool, fill out unavoidable surveys or linking you to a site to track uninstallations is all very seedy practices.
Why isn't it expected of Mac software to keep an installation manifest and provide a way for removing the software?
> Why isn't it expected of Mac software to keep an installation manifest and provide a way for removing the software?
It is dead simple to remove a .app from the Applications folder. Sadly the pkg installers also throw files everywhere. Some software does include an uninstaller pkg, like Windows apps will include an uninstall.exe. But like windows, not everyone is meticulous about making sure you can uninstall cleanly.
macOS not having a standardised uninstaller format nor an equivalent to the Windows Add/Remove Programs is a strange deficiency. You are lucky if a pkg-installed program comes with an uninstaller, alas.
Re installation manifest: I did point out you can lsbom to get the list of installed files from a package (well, unless you use a trick like discussed here; you can do anything in postinstall scripts too on Linux, at least with apt). But programs generate config, state, and data, and those need to removed if you want to “completely uninstall” a program.
Linux certainly does not make clean removal (/etc, /var, dotfiles/directories) easy.
Oh, and the “separate tool” can be pre-bundled, whether you have to download it separately is orthogonal. Pretty much every Windows program has a separate uninstaller, because on Windows you simply can’t uninstall yourself.
> That seems pretty ridiculous coming from Linux, where the vast majority of software will be installed via a package manager, making clean removal trivial.
Except that packaging (in the package manager sense) and distributing proprietary software for Linux, with its too-many distros and even-more-too-many library versions, is such a pain in the ass that almost no one does it in the first place.
1. https://help.webex.com/en-us/WBX38280/How-Do-I-Uninstall-Web...