Google Earth updater now quietly updates all the Google apps | Hacker News Reader

Google Earth updater now quietly updates all the Google apps

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30 pointsnickb13 comments

The title is incorrect. The updater doesn't install all of the Google apps. It just updates Google apps you do have installed when there are new versions available.

It also warns you when you are installing it. So it's not "silent", just rather quiet.

That said, auto update is the only way I've seen to effectively distribute security patches to the masses. I'd prefer an email. I just don't like the whole concept of a service that is constantly sucking CPU and phoning home to check for a patch that comes out every few months. Adobe, Java, Google, Windows, Apple, and just about every "security" product out there- they are all obnoxious software that could at least have the decency to be cron jobs that run once per week.

This is becoming more and more the norm, at least on Windows. I recently installed Office for the first time on my windows machine. At the end of the installer there was a checkbox that said something like, "Make Live my default search engine and make IE my default browser." I wish I had taken a screenshot. Apple is just as guilty with their windows software. But it's funny how some things are acceptable on Windows and not acceptable on macs. It's like you expect people to pickpocket you in a bad neighborhood but not a good one.

Java asks to install OpenOffice too, by the way. :-)

If I remember correctly, I think it only offers to install(with default behavior being no openoffice install).

I think it's a fair enough practice; you are installing java which is free, and nothing wrong if they try to promote some stuff as long as they don't trick/force you.

It's true. I'm a happy Mac user and Apple doesn't pull any of this tomfoolery here. But whenever I use a Windows machine, the Apple Software Updater wants to cram the machine with extra software.

I realize Apple isn't the only one to do so on Windows, but it's still in bad taste.

"But it's funny how some things are acceptable on Windows and not acceptable on macs. It's like you expect people to pickpocket you in a bad neighborhood but not a good one."

But it's not acceptable on Windows, and that behavior is most notable from RealMedia and Apple. Maybe Apple doesn't try that shit on Macs; I don't know.

It's obnoxious, and Apple is a real standout for weaseling in stuff I don't want.

The Google Updater was causing problems for me on Mac OS X (it would continuously fail to update), so I removed it. For anyone else also using Mac OS X and wanting to remove the updater, you can read how here:

http://blog.raamdev.com/2008/12/19/howto-remove-google-softw...

It started already some time ago and it's doing it also on Windows, not just on Macs:

Google Software Update sneaks its way onto computers

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=387759

Auto update is horrid for disabled people and those with other usability issues. There you are happily using a product, and the next day you cannot. I'm going to be a crabby old snot and say, perhaps Google would see things differently if 99% of its employees were not so young and healthy. The trouble is, Google isn't just a whiz-bang company with whiz-bang ideas. It's almost a public utility.

"Don't be (visibly) evil."

On Windows a while back, I used Sysinternals' (now Microsoft) Autoruns to stop their updater from launching on startup.

I don't remember whether the individual applications reversed this setting. I seem to recall it sticking for at least a while.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.asp...

Jerks.....That explains why it kept phoning home.

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