Why do Windows programs suck so freaking much? (and what can they learn from Linux)

David M Williams
Sunday, 30 November 2008 07:39

Opinion and Analysis

Google and Logitech and Java – and the Lesson from Linux
It annoys me so much when a computer starts and says “Logitech wants to check for updates” and requires confirmation. It then returns, “There were no updates” and has to be OK’d again. Or maybe it will find an update. Or maybe it will find an update and then ask me if it’s ok to proceed.

This is similar to Sun Microsystem’s Java updater – although it only tells you if there is something new (but it is checking regularly, chewing up bandwidth!)

On the other extreme, check your list of running processes for GoogleUpdate.exe. If you’ve installed something from Google – Google Earth, Chrome, the Google Toolbar, whatever – you’ll likely have this.

The difference between the two is Logitech go and check then and there and although they bug you about it you know it is happening. You can change this behaviour by right-clicking on the Logitech system tray icon and configuring updates. By default it checks regularly and prompts; you can turn off the check, turn off the prompting and suit yourself. You can also remove SunJavaUpdateSched from the registry section we’ve been working in to stop Java helping itself.

Google’s updater, by contrast, just polls for updates and pulls them down. On the one hand that’s nice, but maybe you want to know what’s going on. After all, you don’t want it sucking down Internet data when your download quota is low, or if you’re on a 3G modem, or while burning a CD.

You don’t actually get any control. If you kill the process it will re-appear after a while. And it’s built-in to all those Google products. The only way to remove them is to uninstall all the other Google apps. Even then Google Updater hangs around for a while until it notices. In this case, Google does evil despite their mantra.

Earlier I said Microsoft weren’t directly to blame for the poor ways Windows programs have been written. Yet, on the other hand there is something they could do.

Consider the best update system for any operating system around – the one used by Linux. Yes, here’s my Linux blast: almost every single application for Linux can be updated using the one and the same package management tool. This includes the core kernel updates themselves through to the most obscure and tiniest of applications.

There is no need for a gazillion software updaters by different vendors which all work in different ways, at different times. Instead, the Linux repositories allow you to keep every piece of code on your system up-to-date with the one single action. It’s clean, it’s understandable and it’s consistent.

Best of all, you do NOT get things being installed as services without your consent!