Recently, Apple shipped out an update via iTunes that included the installation of Safari, the default browser on the Mac OS X, which is also available for Windows. Now, if you read it once again, with a bit of concentration you would see that, Apple went ahead and included the installation file and also pre-selected it for the user. (Photo Courtesy CNET)
As you can see in the image alongside, a 22.65 MB installation file for Safari was included in the update. This lead to a lot of uproar in the blogosphere led by Mozilla’s CEO John Lilly, who went so far as to say that Apple was pushing malware to its customers.
Though, I do not completely agree that Apple was pushing malware, but I strongly believe what Apple did with this update was ethically wrong, the reason why is that, a majority of users will not bother to read through the text and would just implicitly go ahead and install both the items. Now, imagine that a 22.65 mb file has taken that much bandwidth plus the time for something the user may rarely use. I mean, if someone really wants to use Safari, then they will go over to Apple’s website and download it, install it and use Safari.
This has been widely criticized in the blogosphere, because many are livid at Apple’s tactics and see this as misusing the dominance of the iPod+iTunes Platform. As you know, anyone who owns an iPod or an iPhone has to use iTunes to sync content between your PC/Mac to your iPod or iPhone. Now, whenever you install iTunes, you install the Apple Software Update, which is like the Windows update all PC users are very familiar with.
Now, the job of a software updater should be just that - update software. Now, all software on all Operating Systems have bugs - a software update allows the vendor to address it.
John Lilly explains it better in his post about the Safari fiasco:
Click to continue reading “Why I feel Apple is wrong about the Safari update via iTunes”
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