Improving the User Experience?
- April 26, 2000
In a then-perplexing move, Apple Computer last fall ended its
long-standing practice of allowing Macintosh related magazines and
Macintosh Users Groups to distribute Mac OS Updates on CDs and the web.
The official story had the catch phrase, "to preserve
the Apple 'look and feel' our customers have come to expect." Users
Groups were informed that their contracts to distribute Apple updates
had been unilaterally modified prohibiting distribution of OS
updates.
The "improvement" Apple was talking about first became apparent when
QuickTime 3 appeared with its own automatic updater in the QuickTime
folder. For a short while, the only way to get QuickTime was to
download the installer from Apple's site and use it to get the
software. A full installer was later posted (after a good bit of
protest from Mac users). With System 9, the automatic Software Update
control panel began its troubled existence. Both updaters reflected a good idea, but the Software Update control panel,
and, to a lesser extent, the QuickTime updater have been slow in
downloads and generally buggy. The Software Update control panel is
notoriously unpredictable in whether it will find any needed files when
there clearly are updates that should be identified.
After all of the hoopla
last week of the second quarter profits and the stock split, Apple
quietly released another update to the System 9 Software Update
control panel on Friday. Apple's posted description of the revision
is:
- This revision to the Automatic Update software in Mac OS 9 provides
enhancements to make software updates over the Internet faster and more
efficient.
While
Software Update 1.1.3 (572K) appears more effective and stable than
previous versions, its sluggishness caused Bill Fox of Macs Only! to comment in a weekend
posting:
- I downloaded the update by the traditional method and installed the
new extensions on one Mac before the control panel method on five other
Macs even discovered that there was a new update.
Bill's results were consistent with my own experience. Ah, yes . . .
improving the user experience.
What got me going on this jag was an attempt to update my private
page, Free?
From Apple? I noticed that the usual FTP software update sites at
first didn't have an OS 9 update directory. When it was later added,
the directory appeared to be empty, as was the OS 8.6 update directory.
The
9.0.4 update (12.5 MB) appears to be available only through the
Akamai servers. While the
8.6 update directory appears empty, the 8.6 update is still there,
but hidden. You can still use it if you have the correct
URL (35427K).
I really wasn't terribly upset, because I needed to remove all the
Apple icons I'd used beside software descriptions before someone at
Apple Legal decided that their use was a threat to the future existence
of Apple Computer, Inc.
Anyway, now after some eight months of such "improvement" and the
preservation of the Apple look and feel, maybe it's time for Apple to
reevaluate its decision in light of the mixed success of its Software
Update control panel and the QuickTime Updater. While it appears the
stability and reliability issues have been addressed in the 1.1.3
update, Software Update is still slow beyond belief.
Distribution of system updates through the various Macintosh Users
Groups and Macintosh magazines had the positive effect of giving folks
an archive copy of the update on CD. It also eased the load on Apple
servers for the updates. Apple's decision to cancel the privilege of
distributing OS updates brings to mind the old adage, "If it ain't
broke, don't fix it!" Apple chose to "fix" something in a way that has
done little to speed updates. I'd gladly settle for a little less of
the Apple look and feel if I could pull out a MacAddict or Washington
Pi CD and find the Mac OS 9.0.4 update.
All of this makes a soul wonder if there a day coming when the only
way to update your system will be with a Software Update control panel.
And, will that control panel carry a registration fee or possibly an
upgrade charge. While that sounds a bit far out, one doesn't even need
to leave the control panels folder to find the QuickTime Pro
requirement of $30 for full features to be enabled.
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