Apple did something a day or so ago that made a lot of people angry and I don’t really know why. An update was pushed to Windows users, primarily for iTunes but when the user clicked “Yes” to the update Apple’s Software updater opened and by default had the iTunes + Quicktime update and Safari checked. This means that when the user clicked the button to update Safari was installed on their computer.
Many people found this to be malicious or just plain wrong, I say, “what’s the big deal?” Now I understand that probably some users had Safari installed without ever realizing it until their computer rebooted and they found the icon on their desktop but in the world of software often times you have to opt-out of additional pieces of software.
I installed the update to iTunes on my computer yesterday and when I did, I simply unchecked the box for Safari and sure enough after my computer rebooted I didn’t have Safari installed.
No one complains about this when a piece of software forces you to opt-out of installing the Google toolbar, but of course when Apple does something similar everyone freaks out. Trust me, I love Apple, and would admit it to anyone, but if Apple does something wrong I’m going to be the first one to say so.
What people need to realize is that no matter how much they think that this was intentional, it wasn’t. If you uninstall iTunes, Quicktime, and Safari from a Windows computer and open up Apple Software Update, it is going to tell you that you need to install all 3 applications, so whatever application you don’t have installed is going to be listed in the update window. When iTunes updates all it does is open up Apple Software Update, the same app that is used when their is a Quicktime update and a Safari update.
I just don’t see how this could be such a horrible terrible thing. Unless your computer is somehow incapable of unchecking boxes in applications I don’t see how this is “hijacking windows users.”