There are several ways to install software on your Mac:
The Orchard Software Centre should be your primary source to check for an application.
The Apple App Store for Mac with all its free and paid for applications should be your second choice.
Only if you can't find the required software in one of the other sources, you should consider installing software yourself or requesting it to be added to the software centre.
The Orchard Software Centre is besides the Apple App Store for Mac your primary source for centrally provided software for University-owned Macs. When looking for an App, please check the Orchard Software Centre first. Installing applications from the Orchard Software Centre is simple and pain free. It also delegates the task of managing application updates to your IT team. We take care of all updates for you. All updates are tested on a small amount of devices before we notify you that it is time to install newer versions on your Mac.
The Orchard Software Centre provides:
For more information see our usage instructions and frequently asked questions.
All software available in the Orchard Software Centre undergoes a multi-stage testing process. These stages are referred to as releases.
The stable release is the production version of Orchard containing tested and approved software. This is the production release of Orchard, the one which we primarily recommend using.
The testing release contains packages that have not been accepted into the stable release yet, but they are in the queue for that. The advantage of the testing release is that it contains more recent versions of software. Each department should have a few superusers following the testing release to provide feedback on potential issues and test upcoming software prior distribution.
The unstable release is where active development of Orchard occurs. Generally, this distribution is run by developers. However, we are happy to add your system to the unstable release if you would like to live on the edge and provide us helpful feedback.
By default every system is in the stable release. If you would like to be considered for one of the more volatile releases, please contact your IT Support team.
There is an RSS feed available for each release: stable, testing, and unstable. You might be interested in our fully automated software staging process.
Whilst the primary method for installing applications will always be through the Orchard Software Centre. Consideration should always be shown before downloading any application from the App Store, the user must be aware that updates can only be actioned through the App Store (not Orchard Software Centre) and only by an registered Apple ID that was used to sign in and install the application. If the Orchard Mac is used by multiple users then this could pose issues.
Paid for applications - Applications can still be downloaded via the App Store however paid for apps should always be installed in conjunction with the Apple Volume Purchase Program. If the request is for a single user, device or team requirement please get in touch and we can help with this process via https://help.it.ox.ac.uk/request-help
To install any App Store application. Navigate to the app store within applications, make sure you are signed in with a validated Apple ID and then you can install the relevant application.
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