I can’t find it again but I read somewhere yeterday that installing Safari on a Windows machine might contravene Apple t&c.(I think it’s just an ‘oversight’ lol).

It’s Apple’s secret way of taking over the world. First they get you to buy an iPod, then install iTunes, next comes Safari and before you know it you’ll buy an iPhone.

What’s that? You have already? There, I told you so.

Don’t get me started on PC’s, or as the 8-year old son of a good friend calls them “pieces of crap”.

As for Safari, they’ve already changed the EULA. My old one (and yes I checked) stated that any user of Safari was allowed to install one copy of it on one Apple branded machine. As of today it allows anyone to install it just about anywhere and in as many copies as they care to indulge themselves with.

The really annoying habit of Apple’s Updater is that it does not remember the preference - every minor version of anything, it falls back to the bad practice of assuming that not only do you want the product you do have updated, but of trying to shovel everything else as well.

Updaters should UPDATE, and while this may mean a replacement install, installing something unrelated is not expected behaviour.

The only similar behaviour I can think of is by “Freshdevices”, when on registering (free) any of their software, you receive update notices (with lots of low grade spamvertising) for every minor update, even the ones you don’t use.

it falls back to the bad practice of assuming that not only do you want the product you do have updated, but of trying to shovel everything else as well.

I cannot answer for the Windows world, but in Macosphere that isn’t so. There are umpteen pieces of software Apple publish which I don’t have or need. They don’t appear in my Apple Software Update window, nor have I turned them off.

The Mac Software Update mechanism scans the available updates and ‘knows’ which might suit your particular computer. With OSX presumably via Spotlight’s database of all your files.

Equally, my software needs are ever-changing so I would appreciate knowing about applications I might want to install.

Coincidentally, soon after I wrote the above and had left my office, I heard a voice calling me back.

“Mark, Software Update needs your attention. New software is available for your computer.”

Sure enough, there was the Software Update window on screen showing 5 new pieces of software for my consideration. One, a Security Update had been downloaded ready for installing because it was important for my system. The others were offered as options.

I don’t consider the voice alerts, automatic downloading and optional choices as an intrusion. All are fully user-controllable and I welcome them as the way to use a computer in the 21st century.