this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
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It emulates legacy workflow from mac os where you open an archive that contains both the app and a shortcut to applications folder. So everything is result of being designed around that one drag and drop. I assume this installer also registers the file extension so it's doubleclick -> drag -> confirm.
Who doesn't love tradition
It was always a stupid and dumb idea by Apple, as everything by Apple.
I'm not sure if that even was their idea, or if developers just started doing that organically.
This doesn't make any sense? Appimages aren't distributed like this, there is no point in making it three step operation, you won't accidentally open this application and drag an appimage there.
Register what file extension .appimage? Would that even work? Most software on Linux only uses file extensions as a hint at best and nothing at worst because magic numbers are usually preferred. Is there any file explorer that lets you register a file handler for ELFs regardless of file extension?
sure it works, I do it with Gear Lever