But I fail to see why you think it’s the consumer’s responsibility to have a clear grasp as to why an error happens. Responding to user frustration with, “You just don’t get the problem,” when they write a blog post to help others avoid the same complications seems to miss the point entirely.

Furthermore, you seem to imply that just because I organized my applications, the errors I get afterwards are somehow irrelevant because I put myself in that error state. Usability is as much about getting users out of their error state as it is keeping them from getting there, and my last comment laid out some perfectly legitimate points about what Apple was (and wasn’t) doing with their error messages.

The problem is that applications moved out of their standard locations were not recognized correctly by the Leopard installer.

Part of this post and the last one is to call out these error messages, and how little Apple is doing to actually (1) practically identify what the problem is, and (2) suggest a remedy to fix things.

In this case, the error could have suggested running Software Update before closing down iTunes. Better yet – it could have run Software Update itself. It clearly tells me, “You need a newer version of iTunes for this.” I think they should be able to point me in the right direction.

People who have iTunes 7.6 installed in its standard location would never see this issue because it does handle the upgrade issues you’re talking about. Just not when the applications have moved.