As many things are defined by their opposite, it occurred to me that portable software might be understood by the groups that would not want a portable version of their program.
Time-limited software – since portable software generally doesn't write a bunch of junk all over the computer (many users are going to run it over a cloud drive), it's hard to leave behind traces so you can enforce (for example a 30 day demo). Adobe for example has mostly given up on this and moved to a web-connected and web-based software subscription model.
Adware/Bundleware developers – Portable software rarely goes through a startup sequence that installs a program or service. Since there are more testing steps (like what's done here, at PortableApps, and WinPenPack). An example of this is FreeFileSync.
Dependencies – If you have a lot of internal dependencies like other programs installed. For example, it wouldn't make sense to make a portable version of the excellent OfficeTabs, which is attached to Microsoft Office.
iPhone users – never mind the restrictive nature of the App Store and Apple's development requirements, iPhone settings are frequently hard find, much less export, save, or exchange. If you have compatible software, maybe it will sync with your device but don't expect it. If you're using one of thousands of GPL or MPL-licensed programs, forget it.
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Please post below if I missed any. Also, if this grabs anyone's interest, I'll try to follow this up with groups who should do portable versions. EDIT: I posted a "should" thread.
A couple of other cases where a portable version is impossible or doesn't make much sense:
Anything that needs custom drivers - for example virtual machines. If installing said drivers requires a reboot, a "portable" version would be highly awkward to use: install drivers, reboot, launch.
Games - most people can only play games on their own PC and not e.g. at work or at school. In addition, AAA games require a powerful gaming PC and can't run adequately on, say, an Ultrabook.
Fear of piracy: Since portable software can usually be copied anywhere and application settings are often transparent. So developers might believe making software dependent on installation with loads of files containing license key information scattered all over registry, AppData and ProgramData can prevent that, albeit there may be other ways like the aforementioned online subscription models.
Last edited by Emka on Sun May 07, 2017 8:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
Software for the dumbest assumable user: Since extracting an archive to a folder of one's choice and starting the program from there or manually creating desktop shortcuts and the like requires more computer skills than simply clicking an 'install now' button or using an app store. However, there are of course installers for portable software as well (self-extracting archives), e.g. foobar2000, PortableApps.com etc.
SYSTEM wrote:A couple of other cases where a portable version is impossible or doesn't make much sense:
Anything that needs custom drivers - for example virtual machines. If installing said drivers requires a reboot, a "portable" version would be highly awkward to use: install drivers, reboot, launch.
There are a very small handful of exceptions to that. Wireshark, for instance, has a PortableApps.com Format package that will install the driver on app start if it isn't already installed and uninstall it on app exit. It does this without requiring a reboot. It does leave some non-personal bits behind at present, which is why it doesn't have an official PortableApps.com release yet.
