Tablet PC & Mobile PC News & Video Reviews, and Tablet PC Forums

Friday, March 28, 2008

« Microsoft Surface in the Home: Try 2011 | Main | 100 More EverNote Invites!! - Better Act Quick! »

Safari, CRAPWARE, Firefox and Update Insanity

I’ve been running crazy lately with an insane schedule. Thankfully that’s about to end soon. The one thing I don’t need when I’m literally only turning the computer on for a few minutes a day to get some work done is a deluge of CRAPWARE and a bunch of update notices. Last night was a perfect example.

I got in after a day where I hadn’t touched a computer during the entire span. I knew I was going to have far too much email to plow through, and that Google Reader was going to have a tremendous back log. When I opened up my Tablet PC the first thing I was greeted with was that CRAPWARE like notice that Apple wanted to throw the new version of Safari on my machine. Immediately after swearing at that pop-up, Firefox (my browser of choice) popped up a notice that it had an update ready and was ready to close out and update.

Now, I realize that an update is completely unknowing, uncaring, and insensitive to how and what a user is doing on their computer at any given moment. But this quick double whammy just ticked me off to no end. I had email downloading and was already responding to a few, and things were already bogging down.

As I keep reminding folks about CRAPWARE, my whole theory on that comes from my grandfather and his definition of a weed. Essentially, a weed is anything that is growing where you don’t want it to. CRAPWARE is like a weed, even (in the case of Firefox) when you have to plug a security hole. The Apple Safari thing is something else entirely. It is unwanted, unneeded, and necessary for Apple to keep trying to stick it on my system. Stop that CRAPWARE crap now.

So, here’s a simple plea. If companies are going to insist on invading my work-flow, do it quietly. If I open your app (or service) chances are I’m doing it to get some work done, not help you cover up a flaw, install an enhancement, (in most cases with less than explanatory change logs or details available for me to make a choice), or install an application I don’t want. Don’t pop up a window that forces me to take action. Make an announcement that the world will pick up on, or allow me to let this happen relatively quietly. I don’t care that you have the latest and greatest, or that you are playing catch up because your code is insufficient and thus vulnerable to other Malware that is out there. Well, yeah, I do care, but I want to care on my own time.

I’m going to start sending these companies some CRAPWARE myself. I will send them invoices for the time I’m spending doing updates and getting rid of this stuff. I’m sure they will get dismissed, but each invoice will have to be dealt with by some accounting acolyte before it can be dismissed and guess what? That will cost them time and money. My time is valuable. Their CRAPWARE is not.

Tags: CRAPWARE

Editorials | Warner Crocker | Tablet PC

3/28/2008 6:18 AM MST

Safari, CRAPWARE, Firefox and Update Insanity Comments [11] | Digg This | del.icio.us | Citations

Friday, March 28, 2008 6:53:59 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

devils advocate?

jpfx

Friday, March 28, 2008 7:38:41 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Warner,

I agree with EVERYTHING that you've written. I understand that you were writing an editorial post and not trying to do balanced reporting on the subject. However, you may have inadvertently buried one important point.

One nice thing about a product like Firefox is that, if you want to, you can obtaining the BLEEDING edge version with all of the newest features at any second of any day. However, I believe that most automatic updates from Mozilla for the Firefox product at least contain security updates. I believe that they don't push one until it does.

As a guy connected to the Internet, you have a responsibility. I know that exploits of known bugs and security issues are rare and often uneventful, but you don't want to be they guy who's computers launched a DOS attack against NASA because the update was inconvenient. Think about it from a public health standpoint. Would you really cough all over someone in a bus when you were sick because it was a bother to turn your head and cover your mouth? Hopefully not, even if you really think it wouldn't get them sick. As you said, plants are weeds because of how we think about them, but often our thoughts are a little off or incomplete.

Oh yeah... the Safari imposition from Apple was a WEED.

OneDollarMinus98Cents

Friday, March 28, 2008 7:41:25 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Operating system updates (in my case, Microsoft Updates) are fine for me. I don't care if they update automatically on a schedule. If I were running a Mac, I would be perfectly OK with Apple updating their own OS and applications.

What I don't like-- and usually disable by any means possible-- is application automatic updates. I love being able to go to Help > Check for Updates, but I don't want my apps updating automatically.

What really ticks me off, however, is when Adobe and Apple software pushes software on you that you don't even have installed. Case in point, Adobe Reader pushes the SVG Graphics Viewer and Language Packs on me, and Apple pushes out Safari.

Let me tell you something-- AN **UPDATE** by definition, means bringing something already in use up to date. It doesn't mean pushing something new down your throat.

People piss and moan about Microsoft pushing this and that on us, so why should Apple be treated any differently? They are literally hijacking the user experience. How is this *better* than what Microsoft has been sued for countless times now?

GoodThings2Life

Friday, March 28, 2008 7:49:08 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

I should also mention that, despite the option during iTunes and QuickTime setups, the checkbox that *should* prevent Apple Software Updates from installing has NEVER worked. Every time I uncheck it, it installs it anyway, and I have to go remove it from Add/Remove Programs. Again, this is no different than the spyware programs.

NO MEANS NO, DAMN IT!

GoodThings2Life

Friday, March 28, 2008 9:02:41 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

I don't object to Firefox security updates in themselves, but what bugs me is what happens if you have both Firefox and the Google toolbar. As detailed at http://kb.mozillazine.org/Windows_error_opening_Internet_shortcut_or_local_HTML_file_-_Firefox
after each minor update you need to make 4 registry changes to be able to click on hyperlinks without getting error messages.

I don't know if the fault lies with Google, Firefox or Microsoft, but it is annoying to have to edit the registry on several computers every time Firefox releases a new minor version.

Mickey Segal

Friday, March 28, 2008 10:15:07 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Personally, I never object when someone pushes a security fix on me. Expecting software authors to eliminate every security hole imaginable before release is just not reasonable, unless people want to use the car model and pay $20 for software full of holes and $2000 for the same basic software, but with the Bentley approach with extra attention to detail.

Security patches are a way of life, and considering it is MY machine at risk, I don't want to do work until the patch is completed. That leaves ME open to attack, and my work is too valuable to be hijacked. 2 minutes for an update? A trivial annoyance. Changing all my passwords and banking info because someone managed to get a keylogger on my system, or dealing with the fact that some hacker just wandered through all of my confidential IP? Far beyond a trivial annoyance.

However, Apple should be crucified in the court of public opinion for their approach. The Safari nonsense was just absurd.

Jeff_R

Friday, March 28, 2008 10:32:17 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

I don't mind applications that check for updates only when they are run. I draw the line at applications that periodically phone home when they are not running. These I always seek out and destroy. Usually they will put a startup process in the registry that can be deleted (look in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run).

Firefox does it right, Adobe does it almost right, and Apple is a disaster so their software has been banned from my machines.

Mark (K0LO)

Friday, March 28, 2008 11:48:26 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

I soooo agree with you on insensitive auto-updating.

(As a software developer, I hear you.)

When there isn't a keystroke you can use to skip the update (like, for example, Esc), it is infuriating to mouse over to cancel. In Mozilla's case, for the Addon updater to force you to click the continue button after the update completes has made me turn off that update feature altogether. Which brings me to my point: you can moderate or turn these things off.

Thunderbird and Firefox: Tools > Options > Advanced > Update

Even Windows Vista and Windows XP can be configured to do a balloon notification (to sort of wave and say "you whoo!", politely asking if you want to do something about it).

Adobe and Apple... Well, I've used Zone Alarm to block their outgoing comms.

Now if these companies would simply move the update notification to when you shutdown the program... then that would be nice.

If you turn notifications off, though, you need to make a schedule, like backups, to check for updates.

sfwrtr

Friday, March 28, 2008 1:54:10 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

I couldn't agree more Warner. Every time I turn the Wifi on on my OQO it infuriates me when some update takes over the machine making it not only unusable but very noisy as well. I tried turning off all the automatic updates but then I just forget about them.

John in Norway

Friday, March 28, 2008 2:33:05 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

A good way to deal with the twin annoyances of programs that load themselves into memory and programs that call home to check what is new even if they are not being used is to fire up AutoRuns (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx) and zap the whole bunch of them.

In most cases this works just fine, though the HP printer utilities seem to be bothered by this approach (or maybe the HP drivers are just not working well with Vista for other reasons).

For those with an interest in game theory, this is an excellent example of the "Prisoners' Dilemma" game in which all parties tend to defect to further their selfish interests and the result is worse for all concerned. The solution is to have some higher level supervision, which Microsoft offers through AutoRuns and through similar functionality in Windows Defender. Microsoft should continue their progress and have a separate Control Panel item to control such start-up issues.

Mickey Segal

Friday, March 28, 2008 9:29:11 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Not surprisingly, I agree with K0LO. The first thing I do with most software is see if it dropped something into the registry at that location and based on how much I like the software or company, decide whether it will be fun to hit the delete key. This is also why Apple products are banned from MY computers too. Although, I disagree with Mark on one thing, I hate Adobe's updater too, so I've moved entirely to Bluebeam PDF Revu on all my computers. It's worth the money to me to not have to deal with Adobe's software.

Warner, I agree with you wholeheartedly. I will be happy to join you on your quest to rid the world of these barbarian acts. Let me know when we revolt.

Cory

Comments are closed.