Making software updates, and making them available is a good thing. Although Apple's approach is a bit different in this sector. They not only make updates to gain more security and fix / improve features, they even push you new software you might not even needed.
Mozilla CEO John Lilly on Friday lashed out at Apple for turning its software updating mechanism into a self-serving distribution channel for its Safari Web browser."What Apple is doing now with their Apple Software Update on Windows is wrong," Lilly said in a blog post on Friday. "It undermines the trust relationship great companies have with their customers, and that's bad -- not just for Apple, but for the security of the whole Web."
Mozilla makes the Firefox Web browser, which competes with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)'s Internet Explorer and Apple's Safari.
On Tuesday, Apple released Safari 3.1, a new version of its Web browser. It made Safari available for Mac OS X and Windows through its Software Update control panel and as a download from its Web site.
Source: informationweek.com via pgaliba
Lilly doesn’t have a problem with Apple using its software update utility to keep its users up-to-date with iTunes and QuickTime, or any other Apple software they may have installed. The problem for Lilly is that even if you don’t have Safari installed, Apple pushes the update to users and checks the “install” box by default.
“By and large, all software makers are trying to get users to trust us on updates, and so the likely behavior here is for users to just click ‘Install 2 items,’ which means that they’ve now installed a completely new piece of software, quite possibly completely unintentionally,” said Lilly.
Lilly’s concerns go much deeper than offering a new piece of software that users didn’t ask for, he is concerned about the trust relationship that company’s build with their customers and the security of users on the Web.Source: macworld.com via pgaliba
Apple has made it incredibly easy--the default, even--for users to install ride along software that they didn't ask for, and maybe didn't want. This is wrong, and borders on malware distribution practices.
It's wrong because it undermines the trust that we're all trying to build with users. Because it means that an update isn't just an update, but is maybe something more. Because it ultimately undermines the safety of users on the Web by eroding that relationship. It's a bad practice and should stop.
Tags: apple | Browser | distribution | download | firefox | Internet Explorer | John Lilly | Microsoft | mozilla | RELATIONSHIP | safari | Security | Site | Software Update | Tech & Biz | Technology | windows
