I get a window saying I need an administrator password to intall limewire basic or beta, when I double click where it says to to install. What's going on, or where do I get one of these passwords if it's really needed? Any help appreciated.

Thanks, drapetomaniac

Your machine is asking you for your root password, - we don't know your root password.

No, not for the root password (altough it would work but that's an another story).

The Administrator was the first user you've created after installing Mac OS X. In most cases you're yourself the Administrator and with the appropriate premissions you can create additional Admins under System Prferences -> Accounts (depends which version of OSX you have).

to reset a forgotten admin password, see http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106156

Why on earth does Limewire even NEED the admin password to install?

I'm very suspicious of ANY package that runs in user space that wants permissions like that... what EXACTLY is the installer doing?

Thus...

Only root and users from the admin group are allowed to copy things (in this case LimeWire) into /Applications. All other users can only look what's in /Applications...

well, i just tried installing Limewire in a NON-root owned folder with 755 permissions and it STILL asked for the admin password....

this does not bode well....

sorry i got that wrong (too early in the morning here!)

It should have read:

I just tried installing Limewire in a NON-root owned folder with 777 permissions and it still asked for the admin password....

why?

Short story: PackageMaker.app and Installer.app are plain dumb. Installer.app does not check if the permissions of the target directory are higher or lower than current user's permissions. It just asks for the Password and checks then if it's correct etc. etc.

Long story: Read Apple's PackageMaker Documentation to get an idea how it works.

The only option would be to create an Installer which needs no authorization (PackageMaker offers three options: No Authorization Required, Admin Authorization Required or Root Authroization Required) but that has some disadvantages (/Applications is not writable for non-admins and thus they cannot install LimeWire at all).

Note: all .pkg based installers have the same problem (including Apple).

simonsimon all the Mac is doing is a built in security service. It's to prevent people installing software on a Mac computer without the 'administrator' knowing it. Macs are primarily an industrial computer, used in work places or schools. Not the kind of places that would appreciate Limewire.
You need the Administrator password whenever you make a system change or install software regardless off permissions. if it worries you that much, install limewire while offline, then change the admin password before going online and using limewire.