JabbaPapa wrote:

I don't like the fact that Apple Update wants to keep on automatically installing new junkware on my PC, and being noisy and focus-stealing as well, and I am far happier now that I have deactivated it <g>

Over at John's Blog they are rather upset that Apple installs Safari as a update (pre checked) when getting a iTunes update for your PC.

Quote:

Apple Software Update What Apple is doing now with their Apple Software Update on Windows is wrong. 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 –what follows is some background and analysis. Keeping software up to date is hard — hard for consumers to understand what patches are for, how to make sure they’re up to date. It’s also critically, crucially important for the security of end users and for the security of the Web at large that people stay current. If people don’t update software regularly, it is impossible for them to remain safe; good software developers are creating improvements constantly. That’s why Mozilla spends so much time making sure our own Automatic Update Service works, and why we spend so much time agonizing over the user interface for the updates. We look at the data every time we do an update; we obsess about what we call “uptake rates” — the percentage of Firefox users who are on the most current version of the browser a day or a week or a month after release. As a result, Firefox users are incredibly up to date, and adopt very quickly. There’s an implicit trust relationship between software makers and customers in this regard: as a software maker we promise to do our very best to keep users safe and will provide the quickest updates possible, with absolutely no other agenda. And when the user trusts the software maker, they’ll generally go ahead and install the patch, keeping themselves and everyone else safe.

John's Blog

wow haha they do not seem to happy with this ... as they should be though apple is a joke and doing what they are doing now is even worse

another reason i hate apple

It depends on what needs to be updated, though. In my case, iTunes and QuickTime were already up to date so the option (or not) of installing Safari was not tacked onto it. It was a standalone notice to which I could easily have said no.

Of course, if I DID need to update my iTunes or QuickTime, and had not already gotten Safari, no doubt it would have been on the list. So I'm sure that is what a lot of people are seeing.

What bothers me more, though, is that you are FORCED to upgrade iTunes and/or QuickTime or the program will not even work. If I try to use iTunes and an update has been issued, it actually disables the software until I update it. I find that much more offensive. Installing Safari, though, isn't required. It's just an option.

I hate the fact that I'm defending them but to claim that people are being forced to install Safari or are doing it without their knowledge is not true.

Reading John's Blog post in full at the source addresses a bigger issue, and that is terminology. They are using the word "update" to refer to the Safari installation, as though the user has it already installed on their system and it just needs to be updated. What they SHOULD be saying is that Safari is available and if you want to install it you can, and it should be clearly separate from the "there is a new version of something you already have" idea.

The bigger here is the use of the word "update."

Speaking of which...just popped up on my XP laptop:

Yeah I saw it on mine not too long ago, just ignored it

I do agree I think it's pretty low of apple to try and sneak this onto people's PC's