InstaDMG: inital thoughts from a new user

You have to appreciate the simplicity and results of this approach to installation, but what I find annoying is the chicken/egg or cart/horse factor when applying patches. This to me is just too much guess work. If there were a means of authoritatively determining which patch/update/upgrade/package should be applied in what order, this would be a much stronger tool. I mean, Apple Software Update has some logic when applying these updates -- isn't there someway we can tap this? Being able to programatically determine the install order is really the grail here, no?