If you don’t know what this story is about, well, then you probably haven’t read any blogs or tech news sites for the past week.
In short: Apple used the Windows iTunes update software to roll out the Safari update. And here’s the big kicker: the check box to install was on by default. Mind you, nothing would get installed without a user viewing this screen and clicking ‘OK’, but I grant it would have been - well - nicer to have it off by default. But Apple isn’t here to be nice. So there it is.
So off went the blogosphere, and it’s wake the ‘regular tech media’. Or maybe it was the other way around. Or maybe there’s no longer any difference. The Mac Switcher Blog wrote up a list of some of the places where people felt the need to vent their opinions about Apple’s Faux Pas.
I would almost agree with The Angry Drunk, even though I commented on his blog that what he wrote was bullshit. I was just being difficult.
Seriously kids, every time that Apple, or hell Microsoft for that matter, does something that you do not approve of, it’s not the end of the world. Grow up, take a deep breath, and stop your gods awful whining; or, so help me, I’m taking off my belt.
Well, you can’t blame The Drunk too much for his rantings. This is such an annoyingly insignificant story. What made it explode all over the internet like this? Why am even I writing about it?
And then there’s the “Apple hates its customers” versus “Apple really listens to its customers” discussion. Apple is a company that in my view creatively tests the boundaries of product design, software design, and whatever it is they do over there. That necessarily means they’ll get it right some of the time and wrong other times. It seems to me that they actually quite actively improve on their products based on input from their customers.
So when the 10.5.2 update comes out, or Apple TV revision 2 everyone raves about how they did almost everything ‘we wanted’. And when a tick box get placed wrong, everyone’s a-twitter with ‘Apple never listens to us and only looks out for itself’. WTF? People need to get a grip.
Perhaps it’s just been a slow news week. What do you think?
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6 responses so far ↓
The Angry Drunk // March 24, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Hans,
Looks like we’re in agreement on this one. I can see the argument either way re: the appropriateness of Apple doing what it did.
What annoyed me was the insane level of vitriol surrounding it. I mean, when you have the CEO of the Mozilla foundation throwing around words like “malware” and “despicable” about a browser install, I think that things have gone a bit too far.
slappy // March 24, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Normally I like to bitch about a lot of things, but this latest whining from the blogsphere about Safari is just plain silly. It’s not installed behind your back, you can uncheck it, and its doesn’t seem to be worded that you have to install it at all. So no big deal to me. I had a choice to do it on my DELL if I wanted to. So I did, I wasn’t forced, I chose.
Chuck // March 24, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Thanks, Hans! Great commentary. You are absolutely right.
Constable Odo // March 24, 2008 at 10:43 pm
This topic will continue to fester because people somehow believe that Apple is the evil empire with Darth Sidius at the helm. He waved his hand and somehow Windows users could no longer see the marked checkbox that allowed the Safari 3.1 install. I guess they couldn’t see the iTunes/QuickTime install either. Just blindly install everything that pops up in the Apple update and don’t take any responsibility for what’s installed on your machine.
And suppose Safari does become installed. Does it automatically launch when you click on the IE7 icon? You know that Windows has an uninstall application for programs you no longer want on your machine. Is that also disabled? Give Apple a break. Safari isn’t malware or a virus. It’s just another browser. Try it or not, but don’t accuse Apple of some devious plot to take over the browser world. Please stop whining about such silly things.
Nunuvyer Bizniz // March 25, 2008 at 3:39 am
Really, what a tempest in a teapot.
Matt // Le Blog Exuberance // March 25, 2008 at 4:53 am
Of course the Safari update is insignificant. But in the perverted loop-noise of tech bloggers, it “seems” important. Dumber than television, and that’s saying a lot.
I just wonder why the absurdity of our imperial misadventures in Iraq can’t prompt people to write their congressperson, demanding a change of U.S. foreign policy. 4,000 American soldiers killed, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi dead, an economy in tatters — that is something to write about. Instead, we get blogs yapping on about absolutely nothing. Safari is nothing. A software update is nothing. Really. Whatever.
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