“What Apple is doing now with their Apple Software Update on Windows is wrong,” John Lilly, Mozilla CEO, blogs. “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. What they did yesterday was to use their updater for iTunes to also install their Safari Web browser…”
MacDailyNews Take: No, that’s not what Apple did. What Apple did was present the user an option to install and/or update Safari. Users did not have Safari installed and/or updated if they did not want it. That said, Apple should not use the word “update” for all users. Apple should change the nomenclature depending on whether or not Safari is actually installed on the PC. Say “install” if it’s to be an install and say “update” if it’s to be an update. If that single, minor change were to be made, we’d have no problem whatsoever with Apple using Apple Software Update on Windows PCs to offer new software while updating existing Apple apps, including having the “install/update” box pre-selected. However, stating “update” for all users with the “install” box pre-selected, as Apple is doing currently, is unnecessarily obtuse and could be interpreted as an attempt to deceive; in other words: Microsoftian. And, let’s face facts, Windows sufferers in general aren’t the brightest bulbs in the pack; they need all the clarity they can get.
Lilly continues, “Anyone who uses iTunes on Windows has Apple Software Update installed on their machines, which… checks for new patches available for Apple-produced software on your Windows machine, alerts the user to the availability, and allows updates to be installed. That’s great — wonderful, in fact. Makes everyone more likely to have current, patched versions of Apple’s software, and makes everyone safer… The problem here is that it lists Safari for getting an update — and has the ‘Install’ box checked by default — even if you haven’t ever installed Safari on your PC.”
MacDailyNews Take: Agreed.
Lilly continues, “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. 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.”
MacDailyNews Take: Doh! (Disingenuous overstated hyperbole!) So, Lilly’s not the least bit worried that users might like the much-faster and more elegant Safari over other browsers, including his own? We find that very difficult to believe.
Full blog post here.
MacDailyNews Take: The fear is palpable. Hundreds of millions of iTunes software downloads will do that to you. You can almost hear the beads of sweat dripping on his keyboard.
That said, we repeat: Apple should change the nomenclature depending on whether or not Safari is actually installed on the PC. Say “install” if it’s to be an install and say “update” if it’s to be an update.
And, finally, as we said yesterday: It’s about damned time Apple leveraged those iTunes for Windows installs to help spread the word. There also ought to be a big permanent link to the “Move to Mac” and related videos right in the middle of iTunes’ home page. It’s pedal to the metal time now. Let’s go!
