Originally Posted By: artie505
/Apps is a hodgepodge that saw its shadow yesterday morning, thus foretelling a looong winter in Apple-land. frown
  • The Apps folder looks like /Applications
  • Apple apps look like /System/Applications/Preview.app
  • 3rd party apps look like /Applications/Microsoft Excel.app
  • The Utilities folder looks like /Applications/Utilities
  • Apple utilities look like /System/Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.app
  • 3rd party utilities look like /Applications/Utilities/NoSleepHelper.app
Got it? tongue

I"m surprised by your Luminar 3 d/l; its dev apparently didn't fully digest what Apple hath wrought. I wonder if your ability to trash it would have been compromised had you left its path intact?


Originally Posted By: joemikeb
I would be even more curious to see if the installer could write to /System/Applications. Supposedly that is on a READ-ONLY volume. Much of my confusion is a result of APFS volumes and volume groups, how they are identified/addressed, and items such as the "in the box" app icons found in /Applications that disguise virtual locations.


Unless I missed it in the lengthy posts above, it was my understanding that the two Applications folders are the option to have an application available to all users—/System/Applications—or just available to a specific user—/Applications.

This arrangement would avoid the need to install an application multiple times, once for each user.

On a Mac since 1984.
Currently: 24" M1 iMac, M2 Pro Mac mini with 27" BenQ monitor, M2 Macbook Air, MacOS 14.x; iPhones, iPods (yes, still) and iPads.