Format changes plus reinsertion of deleted reference which should have appeared between ** in the final paragraph.

J Jonah Jamieson has reinforced, yet again, the old adage that a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing.

1. OS X install discs now uses mpkg, metapackage, files which do *not* offer the "Show Package Contents" option when control/right-clicked, so JJJ's "Apple's OS already offers the ability inherently" is a misstatement of fact; he has obviously never right clicked on a Tiger or Leopard install disc icon.

2. In those instances in which you can show a package's contents and install them with drag and drop there is no way to correctly set permissions, because without using Installer or Pacifist you will not wind up with a bom (bill of materials) in /Library/Receipts, and, therefore, "Repair Permissions" will have no basis for comparison. (Granted that repairing permissions is a topic that generates much heat (including from Charles Srstka) but when entire, sprawling packages are installed with incorrect permissions the chances of something requiring permission repair going wrong are vastly increased.)

3. As has been previously said, many packages have a million and one components and do not lend themselves to drag and drop installation under any circumstances.

Pacifist is a miraculously useful app, and Charles Srstka is to be commended for offering it to the Mac community at the nominal price he is charging.

Pacifist has helped me out of trouble any number of times, and, as a long-time MacFixIt Forums regular responder (who has now moved to <code>FINETUNEDMAC.COM</code> (FineTunedMac.com) along with the entire MFIF Administrator, Moderator, and regular responder crew), I can attest to it its acceptance in the general Mac community as one of the most useful tools one can have in one's arsenal.