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.