You might not think what Apple did is so bad. I happen to believe it is wrong, however. But before I get the usual conga line of criticisms originating from @mac.com do let me say this doesn’t mean Adobe is blameless. Yes, it bugs me when the Google toolbar is pre-selected when I want to install Adobe Reader. Yes, it bugs me when Sun’s Java updates try to foist packages on me - even if they are things like Open Office.

Indeed, some years ago I began working at a company and marveled how popular eBay must have been among its staff. Every desktop I saw had an eBay icon. I wondered why there were so many dedicated buyers and sellers. Then I discovered the installer which loaded drivers for the chosen Logitech keyboard and mouse package had a pre-selected “Create eBay shortcut on desktop” checkbox. Obviously the users opted for the commonplace method of installing software which I dub “Click Next, click Next, click Finish.”

This method of software installation explains why so many Windows ’98 computers were running Personal Web Server on startup. It explains why so many Office 2000 installations kept asking for the CD to be inserted. Yes, it is true that savvy computer users should be watching this. They should seek to understand what is being loaded onto their computer.

Yet, the truth is not all computer users are at the same level as readers of iTWire, or users of mac.com. I don’t say that to be flippant; the fact you’re reading technology news shows you have a greater interest and awareness than those who use their computers purely as tools to achieve tasks and who don’t understand - or wish to understand - the meanings of dialogs which pop up. And, might I add, who trust software companies to make reasonable default settings. After all, why on earth would anyone expect a mouse and keyboard driver to put a shortcut to eBay on your desktop? What is the correlation?

Might I also let readers know I’ve elected to write this piece using Pages on a MacBook running MacOS X. Sure, I have it dual-booting and I also have Parallels giving me a couple of Linux distros but I cannot be accused of hating Apple. (Mind you, the edges on this laptop sure are cutting my wrists. I do miss the leather adorned wristpads on my regular ASUS Lamborghini laptop!)

I will also point out that Apple’s technique isn’t just aimed at Internet Explorer users. What about those Windows users who opted for Firefox or Opera or something else? They have already made a choice to use a different browser. Do they necessarily see Safari as “an upgrade?”

How does the open source world handle these sorts of things? Please read on!

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