Dear Software. Screw your update.
Posted on 01.04.2010 09:36 pm
Sorry, this is going to be kind of rantish.
To me the purpose of software is to fill a need. We need something done and we seek out the software to get it done.
Software exists in different form because there are more than one way to fill the need, and if you find the right software for you, then I consider you lucky.
I have talked about before how some programs don't even have the most basic needs filled, but when the need is filled, I do not want the program to change. If you have a woman that does all the right things for you, then you sure as hell do not want her to change.
It is happening more and more that software crams down our throats updates that we do not want and I'm not going to name names but I'm talking about very heavily used programs here.
If I have problems with the program, I don't hesitate to check for an update to see if it fixes that problem, but this is a 1% or less use case we are talking about here, and they treat it like it's a common procedure.
Programs should never be in my way, I usually treat programs like they should be honored to be used by me and I'm very quick to remove programs that do not meet my standards, but way to often I hit a dead end in my search and have to settle for an barely acceptable solution.
Currently my music player, FTP client, torrent client, photo editing and instant messenger needs are not filled. All of the current ones I use (except the IM one) force me to update once in a while.
Well I say, screw your update.
0 7 Like it or hate it? - Comment (5)
Arnþór Snær
0 1 / Posted on 01.04.2010 11:02 pm
I agree with you on more then one point here but I'd like to play devils advocate.Software that works with formats not directly controlled by the software maker or networked software that works with open protocols is not an isolated unit of functionality.
Since the functionality is not isolated, the software is prone to bugs, security vulnerabilities or can become outdated due to circumstances beyond the dev's control. I do think these issues generally cover more than 1% cases.
A technically adept user can see what's up and perform updates accordingly. A non techie can not.
Do you know what I did when the updates were not pushed like they are today? Visit my relatives once in a while to "fix their computer". Now they accept pushed updates without much question... not necessarily a good thing but another story.
The other side of the update coin is that the software maker is trying to stay competitive.
You can disable the update checking right?
Ólafur Waage
0 0 / Posted on 01.04.2010 11:28 pm
I agree that with specialty software and server based software, you should update asap just to stay safe.But with basic consumer level software, few people are interested in Improved JTFE Unicode support or the New Posterize adjustment (yea I selected stupid things on purpose)
There are updates that have very useful things and usually you can turn off the update checking but that's the great thing about rants. They don't have to be very logical :)
I also think Eddie Izzard says it pretty well: http://bit.ly/aE3MpT
Arnþór Snær
0 0 / Posted on 02.04.2010 12:29 am
Yes Eddie does say it pretty well.Have you had the pleasure of watching Google Chrome update itself? Can't turn the thing off without going to the library.
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=3636487379e86918&hl=en
Ólafur Waage
0 0 / Posted on 02.04.2010 09:09 am
I don't use chrome on a daily basis (due to lacking addon and rss support and that the stop button is on the right side when everything else is on the left) but that seems to be a pretty strange way to stop the updates.
Arnþór Snær
0 0 / Posted on 02.04.2010 03:28 pm
Indeed, they seem to be marginalizing the semi technical user.Process time: 0.006765 seconds
