GuideZilla: How to manage your Software Collection

[Kaido]

So I've decided to post short articles on my Wiki about certain aspects of owning and using a Mac that people ask me about often or that I think would be useful to people. So when you see a "GuideZilla" tag on my post, that means there's a useful guide inside for you

Today's guide is How to manage your software collection. This article explains how I personally manage my software collection. The basic idea is that I create custom DMG files containing the latest version of the software app, along with a readme file that has the version and license or software key. Then I store it in appropriately-named folders such as "Graphics" or "Document Editing" and put them on my file server (you can use your boot drive or backup drive, whatever is readily available). Using this workflow, I can instantly find and retreive any of my Mac software at a moment's notice for quick installation.

In this guide, I teach you how to rip software from physical discs, such as CDs and DVDs, and digital discs, such as ISOs and DMGs, as well has how to create your own DMG files easily and then how to organize the DMGs so you can find them again. Here's a link to the guide:

http://leopardsoup.pbwiki.com/collection

Enjoy! And please feel free to comment, I welcome suggestions

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Kaido
So I've decided to post short articles on my Wiki about certain aspects of owning and using a Mac that people ask me about often or that I think would be useful to people. So when you see a "GuideZilla" tag on my post, that means there's a useful guide inside for you

Today's guide is How to manage your software collection. This article explains how I personally manage my software collection. The basic idea is that I create custom DMG files containing the latest version of the software app, along with a readme file that has the version and license or software key. Then I store it in appropriately-named folders such as "Graphics" or "Document Editing" and put them on my file server (you can use your boot drive or backup drive, whatever is readily available). Using this workflow, I can instantly find and retreive any of my Mac software at a moment's notice for quick installation.

In this guide, I teach you how to rip software from physical discs, such as CDs and DVDs, and digital discs, such as ISOs and DMGs, as well has how to create your own DMG files easily and then how to organize the DMGs so you can find them again. Here's a link to the guide:

http://leopardsoup.pbwiki.com/collection

Enjoy! And please feel free to comment, I welcome suggestions

I do something very similar, but not quite as in depth with regards to organization.

I have my windows desktop that operates as my file server, on it is a large partition (can't remember the exact size right now, but it is around 180GB) that has all my Installers (the partition is named Installers, how apropos, non?) on it. There are 3 folders, Games, Win, and Mac.

Then I have the stuff divvied up from there. The Games folder is probably the most organized since I have folder for all the games, plus a text file with the Serial, any associated patches that there might be, and generally a NoCD crack as well. I try to keep all of them in ISO format since that is the most universal out there.

Both the Mac and Win folders are just jumbles, but I have begun sorting the Win folder between 32 and 64 bit things since it actually matters there.

What I really want is something like AppFresh, but that will update my installation files. So I can run AppFresh on my Installers/Mac folder and have them all updated instead of having to do it manually. Fortunately, most 3rd party apps are using Sparkle, so it is less of an issue.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: TheStu
I do something very similar, but not quite as in depth with regards to organization.

I have my windows desktop that operates as my file server, on it is a large partition (can't remember the exact size right now, but it is around 180GB) that has all my Installers (the partition is named Installers, how apropos, non?) on it. There are 3 folders, Games, Win, and Mac.

Then I have the stuff divvied up from there. The Games folder is probably the most organized since I have folder for all the games, plus a text file with the Serial, any associated patches that there might be, and generally a NoCD crack as well. I try to keep all of them in ISO format since that is the most universal out there.

Both the Mac and Win folders are just jumbles, but I have begun sorting the Win folder between 32 and 64 bit things since it actually matters there.

What I really want is something like AppFresh, but that will update my installation files. So I can run AppFresh on my Installers/Mac folder and have them all updated instead of having to do it manually. Fortunately, most 3rd party apps are using Sparkle, so it is less of an issue.

Yeah, I wish there was a more widely-adopted update system. That'd be especially nice if Apple ever released a home server - you could purchase & download directly to the server, then install from there to your computers.

I do a similar thing with my NAS. The root organization is:

1. Backup
2. Movies
3. Music
4. Photos
5. Temp

Movies is divvied into DVD, HD, TV Shows, etc. Music & Photos are pretty straightforward. Temp is just a temp place to hold files as needed. The Backup folder has some extra organization:

1. Accounts
2. Documentation
3. Ebooks
4. Projects
5. Software
6. Systems

I have an account for everyone at my place; I just drag a shortcut to their Finder or Windows desktop for backing up to. Documentation is for all of those useful PDF guides like hardware manuals and BIOS settings. Ebooks could technically be in the root folder, but because I don't use it that much, it sits in the Backup section (used to have a Kindle and used them a lot more, but now they're just in the Backup folder for storage). Projects is all of the projects I'm working on, weather it's school or Hackintosh or whatever. Software is split into Games, Mac, Misc, and Windows. Games mostly holds my legacy ROMs, mainly for my Xbox1. Misc is for stuff like FreeNAS, which doesn't really go anywhere else. Then the Mac folder is setup as I mentioned and the Windows folder is setup the same way.

I find this setup super convenient because I have "bins" to drop files in quickly. I don't have to wonder where to put stuff when I want to back it up. The RAID 5 setup is especially useful, along with a UPS, because I never have to worry about losing the data. I also keep all of the expensive or hard-to-find software backed up on physical CD or DVD disks, locked up in the basement. My only wish is that Internet upload speeds were faster so that I could put a NAS at my grandma's house across the country or something for server-sync

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: TheStu
I do something very similar, but not quite as in depth with regards to organization.

I have my windows desktop that operates as my file server, on it is a large partition (can't remember the exact size right now, but it is around 180GB) that has all my Installers (the partition is named Installers, how apropos, non?) on it. There are 3 folders, Games, Win, and Mac.

Then I have the stuff divvied up from there. The Games folder is probably the most organized since I have folder for all the games, plus a text file with the Serial, any associated patches that there might be, and generally a NoCD crack as well. I try to keep all of them in ISO format since that is the most universal out there.

Both the Mac and Win folders are just jumbles, but I have begun sorting the Win folder between 32 and 64 bit things since it actually matters there.

What I really want is something like AppFresh, but that will update my installation files. So I can run AppFresh on my Installers/Mac folder and have them all updated instead of having to do it manually. Fortunately, most 3rd party apps are using Sparkle, so it is less of an issue.

Yeah, I wish there was a more widely-adopted update system. That'd be especially nice if Apple ever released a home server - you could purchase & download directly to the server, then install from there to your computers.

I do a similar thing with my NAS. The root organization is:

1. Backup
2. Movies
3. Music
4. Photos
5. Temp

Movies is divvied into DVD, HD, TV Shows, etc. Music & Photos are pretty straightforward. Temp is just a temp place to hold files as needed. The Backup folder has some extra organization:

1. Accounts
2. Documentation
3. Ebooks
4. Projects
5. Software
6. Systems

I have an account for everyone at my place; I just drag a shortcut to their Finder or Windows desktop for backing up to. Documentation is for all of those useful PDF guides like hardware manuals and BIOS settings. Ebooks could technically be in the root folder, but because I don't use it that much, it sits in the Backup section (used to have a Kindle and used them a lot more, but now they're just in the Backup folder for storage). Projects is all of the projects I'm working on, weather it's school or Hackintosh or whatever. Software is split into Games, Mac, Misc, and Windows. Games mostly holds my legacy ROMs, mainly for my Xbox1. Misc is for stuff like FreeNAS, which doesn't really go anywhere else. Then the Mac folder is setup as I mentioned and the Windows folder is setup the same way.

I find this setup super convenient because I have "bins" to drop files in quickly. I don't have to wonder where to put stuff when I want to back it up. The RAID 5 setup is especially useful, along with a UPS, because I never have to worry about losing the data. I also keep all of the expensive or hard-to-find software backed up on physical CD or DVD disks, locked up in the basement. My only wish is that Internet upload speeds were faster so that I could put a NAS at my grandma's house across the country or something for server-sync

My main method for syncing things between my Mac and my desktop (and by syncing, I really just mean dumping, I seldom pull things from the desktop to KEEP on my macbook) is thus;
I have a folder on my Mac, called "To Transfer". I created aliases of this and placed them in various places around my hard drive. Namely, Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Torrents, Pictures (I like to keep those in 2 places as some are irreplaceable)

Things get placed into the To Transfer alias, and then when I am next at my house, or need to free up space on my macbook, I just take everything that I put in the To Transfer and start divvying it up onto my desktop.

Videos, Programs, Installers are the partitions on the desktop. Programs has more and more become more of a catch-all, so I may actually rename it to Misc, but from there Videos is further separated into;
TV Shows -> Further folder'ed by show title -> Further folder'ed by season number
Movies -> HD Movies
Comedy -> Various comedy specials and the like, aren't really movies, aren't really TV shows
Random clips

All in all it is a pretty good system that lets me get access to my files pretty quickly (you know, when Windows lets me connect )