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Google Earth 5.0 Silently Changes Update Policy
mario_grgic writes "Recently announced Google Earth version 5.0 adds interesting new features like images of ocean floors and some detailed images of Mars. But it also brings another unwelcome change for Mac OS X users. Google Software update daemon is installed when the application is launched for the first time. The user is greeted with an uninformative message that does not really explain what is about to happen. After the user accepts, Google Update Agent is downloaded and installed. It updates all Google applications and not just Google Earth. Also, it runs on an unchangeable schedule of its own (instead of, say, only when one of Google's apps is launched), consuming system resources. Worst of all it can not be simply removed, since it is downloaded and installed again once Google Earth is launched. Users really have only two choices: live with it, or uninstall all Google apps. There's a discussion about the updater in this Google Group, including details of a way to disable it (not for the faint of heart). So fellow Slashdotters, has Google crossed the line?"
I am slowly being more and more convinced that Google will become the "skynet" we are all afriad of!
about the EULA not allowing it to be in the Ubuntu repositories.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
Does anyone have an "in" with somebody at Google Earth or the outfit they contract with to provide the imagery? A large portion of central and northern Arizona hasn't been updated in years i.e. the images are still in low resolution. The reason I ask is that I belong to a Search & Rescue team and we are currently looking for evidence of a downed aircraft reported missing two years ago. However, much of the possible crash area is still way out of date. In general, not having current imagery makes our job more difficult than it should be.
Right. Updaters are fine, I love them, but I want to be in control, and I want to be able to turn them off if I want to. I should be able to run them when I want to run them, not on their schedule.
(I also would like to choose which applications get the auto-update).
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Exactly so. I also don't want to be disturbed with whatever I'm doing by an updater happily sloshing in data in the background. I love Google Earth, but it's been uninstalled now; I might try killing the updater later with the command line, but can't be bothered right now. Seems to be, the best thing we can do is bombard Google. Send them emails with complaints. They'll get the picture, and I think they'll adjust the code - at least enough to only run when you want it to, or on selected components. Now, this might be part of a bigger plan of theirs (world domination, anyone?), likely to force updates of Chrome and other software, but they usually do listen to public opinion. We just have to make it public, and this /. articls is a good start.
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it well worth the effort.
That is a blow I really enjoy using some applications that Google has produced I didn't want to be forced to install all of them I believe I am going to uninstall all of them. Man what happened to Google did they become Microsoft.
I mean, it is disappointing that a company I respect would do something like that. It could be worse, like installing software you didn't already have (yes Apple, I'm talking to you). At the same time, I have a feeling the power of us in the community will prevail and find a way to circumvent this unwanted action. Give us time... Most of the products I love, I stay with for one reason alone, the community. And of course, if enough of us complain on here, maybe Google will hear.
I don't know that this rises to the level of "evil." On the other hand, I would call it inconsiderate, self-important, and shoddy workmanship.
If you get a full install of Bonjour (downloading it from Apple directly instead of getting it with an install of iTunes) it's a fairly nice and useful tool. Unfortunately, the Windows install that comes with iTunes is loboitmized (probably in an effort to avoid complaints, but it's still a shame) and really doesn't do much more than let iTunes share it's library.
On Windows myself, and I'd just updated to GE5, and found this this morning. Of course, no way to uninstall.
Deleted the service entries under HKLM/System/CCS. Rebooted, removed PF/Google/Updater/*
Removed inherited permissions on Updater and made the folder read-only (never thought I'd be truly thankfull for NTFS).
I totally disagree about this, but GE and GTalk seem to run ok with the above changes.
They did fix one thing in this version that several people complained about: GE 4.3 for Linux required a certain processor flag (SSE2) that 32 bit AMD processors don't have. Strangely, they did not require it for the Windows version; I was able to use GE 4.3 on this AMD Sempron without a problem under Windows.
Fortunately, GE 5.0 doesn't require that flag under Linux. I'm glad they fixed it, because I wasn't going to upgrade my desktop computer just to run the latest GE. GE 4.3 Linux requirements update.
So it appears the team does listen to feedback. I hope they'll listen to this new concern as well.
Apple is the king of installing background crap on your computer. (well, they are if you use their software on windows, at least)
Indeed. That's precisely the reason I do not have iTunes or Quicktime installed on my computer (and if somebody really wants to show me a quicktime-format video, I tell them to encode it to something else).
We all know Google runs Windows on all their computers... maybe this is their way of secretly getting back at Apple for all the trouble they've caused our RAM chips.
All of which is entirely fair, and should apply equally to iTunes for Windows, which forever wants to keep installing more and more of the MacOS desktop instead of fixing the fact that it's by an order or magnitude (no exaggerating, here, really) the least responsive app on my desktop.
Yep, every time I run iTunes, it seems, I'm asked to install some new piece of the MacOS desktop. The real problem is that Apple is refusing to port iTunes to Windows. Instead, they're just adding the APIs and support services that they rely on under MacOS to Windows, which means that nothing performs well, as it's all a redundant layer over the Windows functionality that does the same thing.
The difference is Some of us actually like Google. itunes is crap people put up with when they get ipods. They chose to buy the ipod so they are forced to deal with apples BS.
chmod 444 $updater
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
I still don't understand why all these companies feel like they need to create their own bloated ecosystem on top of the OS. All the #$%@#! application needs to do is check for an update and link me to its website (even that is not necessary). Adobe is the worst at the this-they have their own $^$#&*$@ file browser, for $@#%'s sake! And their updater nags and doesn't work properly half the time.
I'm not excited to see Google go down this path. If this is cloud computing, I'd rather be from the moon!
Mod this guy up. You know the app that annoys me the worst? It's FF. That app pops up almost every time I start it asking either to update extensions or install downloaded extensions. Adobe's updater crashes most of the time. Flash is evil. You don't know until you hit something like youtube and then presto half the sites you visited yesterday magically don't work today because you need the next flash. I seriously doubt youtube changed their stuff. I think that's just flash's annoying way to force people to update. I actually don't mind windows update half the time. The Sun Java app seems like the quietest app that checks for updates.
I really think that its about time for MS or some one to say enough is enough. We need an app updater as part of windows. I'd also like to set never check for updates and never be bothered by them. That's what I do 98% of the time when given the option. I'm sorry if you want me to install your latest greatest or all your patches. I'm happy with my version. I don't hate breaking things to update them. Today there is no way to roll back to yesterdays crap most of the time either. Once you get that update, you are stuck with the update.
Isn't there a similar updater being installed with Google Apps on Windows? I installed Chrome, found that it installed "Google Update Service". I uninstalled both, and I've refuse to use Google Client-side apps since.
For goodness sake. Am I the only one that likes the Google Updater?
Let's review the benefits it has:
I think people overestimate the resource drain this app has. Really, this should be a core part of Windows. I'd much rather desktop apps behave like web apps and just get silently better instead of expecting me to give a rats ass about the existence of a 0.0.1 point release.
Yeah I'll give you guys that. Apple's software for Windows SUCKS, and always has. The same problems don't occur in Mac OS X. Why they write shitware versions of their Mac apps and spread forceware to Windows machines is fucking stupid. No excuse, Apple, and I'm what the juvenile labelers of the world would probably call a "fanboy."
"You're getting brutal, Sark. Brutal and needlessly sadistic."
"Thank you, Master Control"
-Sark and the MCP
You get the upgrader with Sketchup for Windows, too. I deleted Sketchup and had to do some registry monkeying to get rid of the updater.
This really does confuse me. Google should be smarter than this.
Couple of weeks ago my G1 browser started getting Google Mobile for my homepage instead of the fully-featured Google page. Turns out Google started directing ALL mobile browsers to Google Mobile pages based on user agent. The iPhone fanboyz went ballistic. I just screamed. Among the things I lost was the Bookmarks gadget. Pus.
Their logic was, from several forum posts, that Google wanted mobile (actually 'phone' browsers was how they put it) users to have a 'consistent' experience across platforms.
If I want a consistent browser experience similar to that of, say a Motorola RazrV3 user, or a BlackBerry Pearl user, I WOULD HAVE PURCHASED A RAZR OR PEARL!!!!!
Sorry. I still get angry.
I bought a G1 mostly to get an enhanced browser, 3G/WiFi service to be able to use the browser, and therefore have a more *useful* experience. Google has essentially downgraded my browser.
I do have a workaround - the Steel browser lets me set the user agent to 'Desktop'. Now I get my Google pages like I like them.
I'm not sure this is Google becoming evil, or Google becoming Nanny. Or is that the same thing?
It couldn't have anything to do with wireless providers asking if there were some way Google could minimize the amount of bandwidth mobile suers were sucking through the straw, could it?
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
When you try to install Google Earth 5.0, it also automatically starts downloading Chrome, even if you didn't already have it installed. And there is no option to cancel just Chrome, although you can cancel all and re-select Google Earth from the "Installed Software" tab, but just the same it's like they are trying to force you to install Chrome.
The path to enlightenment is truly through homemade drugs!
Looks like it
No, it bloody isn't. That's the sort of thing malware does. My computer is mine and things on it get installed and updated only under my consent.
It's the principle of the thing. This action alone ensured nothing else of Google's will get on my computer.
Where did you get the idea that you get to set the terms at which you get other people's stuff?
Um, that is a standard theme in here. See music, mp3, RIAA, MPAA, and similar.
The general thought seems to be "Who the fuck are they to dictate how we get the music and movies that we want?"
I must say, at a certain point it get's old having to constantly fight every battle like this over really benign stuff. You're clearly very into computers, as am I, but for 95% of people out there, they aren't (AND SHOULDN'T) going to spend any time on this. I mean, who cares really? A small hard core group of people will complain and Google will likely change based on them alone.
Gaaah! Do something more important with your lives! You guys make this sound like Google went out and stabbed a bunch of puppies and sent their dead carcasses to your mom's house for mother's day.
10 minutes working on a sig. What a waste.
It is worse than that.
I read that Google Earth 5.0 had some new features. As I did not update Google Earth in a long time, I decided to give it a go.
I downloaded Google Earth 5.0, opened up the dmg. I then proceeded to a normal Mac upgrade: I COPIED THE NEW VERSION ON TOP OF THE OTHER.
I then launched the new software. I was greeted with two options:
1) Accept that the Google Updater gets installed.
2) Quit
There was no warning of any kind when I downloaded the software that it will remove functionality unless I accept some sort of spyware/nagware/bloatware on my machine.
So, I have a few hundreds of "bookmarks" in my Google Earth application. What am I supposed to do ?
For the record, I accepted the install, because I thought that the update app would be easy to disable. Wrong. There is no UI for that app. I had to go the hard way to disable it. I will now go back to Google Earth 4.3.
Anyway, Google finally crossed the line for me. "Do no evil" ? My ass...
History has taught us, the truth always comes out.
So who killed JFK? Why did the CEO of Coca-Cola change the recipe back in the 80's when he assumed control of the company? Why were there no aircraft fuselage fragments at the Pentagon "crash site" on 9/11?
History has taught us that where liability is limited there are more secrets than truths. Give a government or corporation an inch, they're take a parsec. Governments are necessary to order, and corporations are necessary to progress. The amount of consumer pressure required to keep them in check would be a full-time unpaid job for at least 1/4 of the population.
I agree we shouldn't be sitting on our hands, but people willing and able to lead such endeavors have to come forward, and that simply ain't me. Most of them waste their time on politicians that will never get elected.
War as we knew it was obsolete
Nothing could beat complete denial
- Emily Haines