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Apple Usurps Oracle As the Biggest Threat To PC Security
AmiMoJo writes: According to data from Secunia, Apple's software for Windows is now the biggest threat to PC security, surpassing previous long term champion Java. Among U.S. users, some 61 percent of computers detected running QuickTime did not have the latest version. With iTunes, 47 percent of the installations were outdated versions. There were 18 vulnerabilities in Apple QuickTime 7 at the time of the study. Oracle has now fallen/risen to 2nd place, followed by Adobe. All three vendors bundle automatic updater utilities with their software, but users seem to be declining new versions. Update fatigue, perhaps?
Why would Apple NOT update it's insecure Windows software ? Anyone ?
I haven't had cause to even install Quicktime in... years. Where are these people going that quicktime is so popular?
The reason why I'm stalling sometimes with the updates is that the whole process is interfering with my computer usage. There are annoying popups requiring attention at about 30 s - 1 min intervals, activating a random time after computer boot and trying to install 3rd party software, so I need to be in a mood for installing those updates. Not even to mention that every software has its own update software with its quirks. And Windows also now notifies you to disable "unnecessary" start up software, which often includes these update checkers. These should all come from a single source and be handled much more like they are handled in Linux distributions or mobile app stores.
Valid question. I used to install Quicktime... 4? On my Pentium 2 MMX 200mhz computer back in the mid 1990's so I could watch movie trailers on Apple's website in middle school. That's the last time I installed Quicktime that I can remember. I'm honestly curious what purpose it serves today? Is it a web browser plugin or what? I haven't even thought of Quicktime in YEARS.... let alone had a reason to use it...
moox. for a new generation.
iTunes.
iTunes attempts to install a fuckton of useless shit, and let's face it, most people are just going to click 'lolwut okay'.
One reason people do not keep their Quicktime up to date is because the updater for it keeps offering unrelated shit so the reaction is "wtf is this, I'll just close this". Heck, they might uninstall the whole thing that keeps bugging them, leaving behind Quicktime (which then never gets updated)
Stupid companies should stop using automatic software updaters as tools to push other things to the user.
I was so excited when I got my iPhone 4. It's old, I know. Everything worked so well.
Now... itunes has changed so much I can barely use it. It's always losing playlists, stopping play because it sees a cloud icon when the downloaded version is right underneath it, etc. Don't get me started about the hidden File Edit menus. My iphone barely works anymore. Browsers slow, maps is a joke, switching tasks takes a while.
The last thing in the world I want to do is update itunes and IOS. Each time it gets more and more unusable, each time the experience stops 'just working'. I won't upgrade either again. Too scared. Too much time to remake all those playlists. Too worried about the lag from the new OS or insanely strange UI of itunes.
It's too bad we can't just stick with a version that works, but this 'one size fits all' approach isn't working great.
Blame the fucking software vendors.
People are getting tired of having their entire computer overhauled year after year with progressively worser and worser user interfaces and workflows. So they stick with what works for them, which looks bad for the software vendors because nobody wants to upgrade to whatever garish piece of shit they're trying to push this year. In a pathetic attempt to force everyone to upgrade, they simply stop releasing updates and tell you you're SOL unless you upgrade.
So now you've got people like me, who just don't give a shit anymore. I run what works for me, and that's that. I don't care if it's out of date. If things get bad enough, I'll just pull the CAT5 on this machine and buy a shitty laptop to interface with the internet instead. I could care less what the latest greatest software may or may not do, because I make a living with what I've already got, and I don't need that to change anytime soon.
Valid question. I used to install Quicktime... 4? On my Pentium 2 MMX 200mhz computer back in the mid 1990's so I could watch movie trailers on Apple's website in middle school. That's the last time I installed Quicktime that I can remember. I'm honestly curious what purpose it serves today? Is it a web browser plugin or what? I haven't even thought of Quicktime in YEARS.... let alone had a reason to use it...
My understanding is that versions of iTunes prior to 10.5 required Quicktime. Quicktime has always been more than a video player -- it's an entire multimedia framework, with APIs for doing a whole host of multimedia playback, editing, and conversion capabilities. It was the main multimedia framework for Mac OS X up until 10.7 (Lion).
iTunes would have used it for both media playback, as well as for transcoding video from various formats/sizes for various Apple devices (iPhone, AppleTV, etc.). Newer versions no longer require Quicktime so far as I'm aware -- however, this article is about people who aren't keeping their software up-to-date, so it wouldn't be surprising to learn that they're still running older OS's and older versions of iTunes.
Yaz
These statistics are meaningless without actual install numbers. Of the computers scanned, how many actually had QuickTime installed? How many had Java?
I do wish Apple would stop pushing QuickTime, I don't have it installed on my Windows PC and I don't use it on my Mac.
The right to protest the State is more sacred than the State.
When Adobe's "automatic updater" detects a new version, it opens a webpage that offers to download the installer and that's it. You have to do all the steps as if you were installing Flash for the first time. Very lazy programming.
I stopped updating software that isn't broken when the people at Mozilla, Apple, and Microsoft decided that updates were a good way to take away popular features, or force unwanted changes. Fuck you. I like my software the way it is, and if you're not going to give me security updates without shoving a bunch of other bullshit down my throat I'm not going to do updates at all.
Never get the latest versions. They may fix bugs, but they add unwanted and ill meaning new features.
What does that have to do with PCs?
thegodmovie.com - watch it
The first thing I do after installing anything from Apple is delete the updater service. It has no business running all the time and phoning home. Why can't an application update itself when I run it?
Another reason may be that people are unaware of the sneaky Apple crap installed on their computers. I used to have an Apple access point that didn't have a web interface. To access it I had to install an extra application plus the Bonjour service. After I uninstalled the application, Bonjour was still installed and running -- had to kill it manually.
There's no longer a safari for windows...
Plus we're tired of being tricked into accidentally downloading unwanted virusscanners (flash), toolbars (java), and whatever other crap they want to bundle. We are tired of running two dozen automatic update tools at all times, all fighting for internet access and all using memory and CPU time. Sure, it's very little and it mostly ends up in swap anyways - but it adds up. And we are certainly tired of having to deal with that crap every time we boot the machine.
It's a great mystery to me why Windows does not have a unified update service (like Windows Update, but also including tools from 3rd parties). It doesn't even have to go through Microsofts servers - just let programs register their own server with the update service, and then let the update service do updates at times when it is convenient to me.
I've solved at least part of this problem by simply not having QuickTime or Java installed. Flash is installed, but only runs on demand (which is actually far less often than you'd imagine). Windows Update I've shut down after Microsoft started pushing spyware and adware as "important updates". So now I run a risk of "hackers". So far they've proven less of a nuisance than actual vendors...
Exactly.
For most of us Quicktime died a long time ago, and iJunk tries to take over your machine.
I have no need of either of them, so why bother with the hassle?
The Java holes that won the award for least secure software ever were in the Java plugin sandbox. Enterprise Java is not using the sandbox.
The credit card stealing holes in big enterprise systems are more likely to be holes in the software handling the credit cards, rather than Java itself.
It does not say "popular". Just "biggest". So the biggest threat is actually very small. Windows is the safest operating system!
Do newer versions of iTunes uninstall Quicktime when you upgrade? If not, it seems likely that a lot of people would have it installed for no reason when they could easily reduce the attack surface.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
it's just unbelievable, how often flash needs to be updated. i usually disable autoupdates and only install the new version whenever i need it. but still, you can't use the computer for a couple of days without flash getting deactivated by safari because there's a newer version. how many bugs/security holes can one poece of software have?
trailers.apple.com
No. More like mistrust. We think that our software providers are out there to take advantage of us at every turn of the corner, either by price-gouging, or by selling our private data or by forcing us into an update treadmill or some other form of dependency.
We are not the customers, we are the wares.
Therefore, when we've got a "working setup", we try to do what we can to protect it from "updates": who knows whether the next update is going to help us or not? Who cares if something gets botched because of a malware or of a ruthless software provider? Where's the fucking difference?
Fixes issues and users decline to update? How stupid are users these days? Update fatigue - more like thought fatigue.
You mean there's no supported and regularly updated version of Safari for Windows. Just because Apple stopped supporting it on Windows doesn't mean it was completely wiped out of existence.
In fact, people running older unsupported versions of Safari actually fits right into the vibe of what this article is all about
Many video editing and conversion tools claim that they "require" that QuickTime be installed during installation (although in many cases it's not actually required depending on the individual's specific needs), and then proceed to either download and install the current version or install an almost certainly out of date version from installation media. Since a basic version of a video editing tool is included with most devices with video capable cameras, I suspect this is probably responsible for bumping up the number of QuickTime installs on Windows much higher than it really needs to be, especially given how reticent some Windows users seem to be about installing updates.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
I have Mac's and don't use Quick Time. Who uses it on PC's? What I have seen is how many PC's still have a unsupported Windows version of Safari on their PC's.
But its a tall tale to say Apple software for PC's is anything close to the Oracle stuff or Adobe Flash malware out there for PC's. Besides the fact that even though Quick Time might still be on many PC's. I doubt many are actually using it.
No one uses Safari on Windows. Few used it even when it wasn't abandonware.
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
Right, because you never encounter a non-technical CEO-type person who insist on having his iCrap connected to the corporate network. Nope, never. And they certainly don't ask the supporters to jump through hoops in order their make their bling authenticate against the AD-servers, nope wouldn't happen, ever /sarcasm.
Really, considering my workplace is supposed to be a Windows-only-shop, we spend an inordinate amount of time messing around with dysfunctional Apple-software because boss-types want to be down with the young kids and flash their toys for corporate street-cred. It's a problem.
Users view updates from Apple as risky.
Here is what one can expect with an update to iTunes:
-four or five "yes I agree" click-throughs, one for each service the user hasn't signed up for or ever used
-longer load time and general bloat
-random UI changes that make it an exercise in "what will they think of next" to do basic stuff like sync a phone
-an army of snotty "senior" "helpers" explaining the problem is not a problem, most of whom just don't bother to read
-a SECOND set of random UI changes and feature removals for media organizing, moving or removing stuff like menus and ability to manage play lists, some of which represents hours and hours of tinkering with it.
-"Careful, don't do that" advice from people who lost their whole library, or had to reinstall and couldn't find the library on the hard drive again.
For Quicktime, it's about the same, only the user doesn't use the program much beyond obscure or old porn
Apple has a BIG PROBLEM trying to push their UI bullshit into an environment where their UI bullshit stands out as particularly retarded. There's NO FUCKING REASON to remove the standard word based drop down across the top of the program. More space? People already have more screen space (or second, or third screens) than they know what to deal with. Doesn't look good to emo-fags? How about a toggle to turn it off? (which leaves it on by default)
The actual risks for a slight chance for a security exploit are meaningless compared to the guaranteed fist-smashing-keyboard frustration of a simple update. I have actually helped users disable updates from Apple because they were so afraid of said bullshit or their old iPod or iPhone suddenly not working with it.
If Apple wants to get people to update on Windows, they need to stay within the expected design parameters of Windows better and just let the program look different on different platforms.
My understanding is that versions of iTunes prior to 10.5 required Quicktime. Quicktime has always been more than a video player -- it's an entire multimedia framework, with APIs for doing a whole host of multimedia playback, editing, and conversion capabilities.
Maybe that's why it's full of security exploits. Windows already has all that from MS and other vendors. None of them manage to fuck up updates and annoy their users to the Nth degree.
Unless you have Linux distro-like package management, there's no easy way for the iTunes updater to know whether Quicktime is used by some other application.
It's not like you can have any app running on an OS that is spyware and it matters if it is spyware or not too.
If tl;dr just use look at the last 2 URL's in this comment:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=8200011&cid=50769993
Quicktime offers an API which allows other programs to display video. A very simple one which is why so many programs used it for such a long time. You will also find a lot of support for the MOV container format in video cameras, and baked in support in many image editing suites e.g. Adobe Lightroom (because the line between video camera and still camera is nonexistent these days).
I have it on my computer only because I have a program which depends on it. I don't know anyone who uses it as a media player anymore.
Why y'all continue to trust applications to do anything is beyond me.
You don't hand your wallet to the clerk at the gas station, but you'll hand your whole machine over to any random bit of code, and get upset when it goes awry.
Your OS should ask which files to let your application access... until that changes, you're going to keep getting skunked.
I was so excited when I got my iPhone 4. It's old, I know. Everything worked so well.
Now... itunes has changed so much I can barely use it.
This is just so true.
It's as if incompatibility is the new compatibility, and many updates break other things.
Too often, agreeing to an update means you just clicked on 'enter dependency hell here'.
-wb-
I just get tired of non-system updates which require a reboot.
I just built a new workstation system based on Server 2012R2 (to get the server-level features) and one thing I put off was installing Acrobat Reader. It finally became just too annoying to use Chrome as a PDF reader, so I broke down and installed it -- from Adobe's web site. And sure enough, two days later, it's blinking at me on the taskbar to fucking reboot due to some update.
For a system which runs off SSDs isn't that time consuming individually, but is a nuisance because I've got other stuff that uses my workstation resources, so it's less about the reboot time and the annoying coordination with other resources.
Do newer versions of iTunes uninstall Quicktime when you upgrade? If not, it seems likely that a lot of people would have it installed for no reason when they could easily reduce the attack surface.
Do you really think that many people have gone that long without having to reinstall Windows?
And in reply to the sibling AC comment, while I'm here:
Unless you have Linux distro-like package management, there's no easy way for the iTunes updater to know whether Quicktime is used by some other application.
Of course there is. Programs get to register to say that they are using a shared DLL. You check to see if your DLL is marked as being in use, and if not, then you uninstall.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I'm gonna go ahead and call this flamebait. I'm no fan of Apple but that's more about their business practices and less about the quality of their hardware and software... but I'm struggling to blame Apple for people not keeping quicktime updated. Who the F@CK uses quicktime? I know back to the future day has passed, so clearly we aren't travelling back to 1998, so wtf is quicktime even doing on most peoples machines?
I don't even use Quicktime on my Mac. Why would anyone use it on Windows?
A few years ago I would have agreed that it was update fatigue.. You couldn't open iTunes without it wanting to upgrade. However, once iOS began supporting over the air updates I lost the one and only reason that I ever opened iTunes. I can't remember the last time I opened iTunes or used QuickTime. Since it doesn't prompt for updates unless you open it, I really have no problem at all believing that there are a lot of old installs out there. iTunes is a horrible music player.
And the reason why when I got my machine I did not install iTunes or any Apple software on it.
There's an important distinction in English between "is used by" and "is in use by".
"Is used by" means that a program which might not currently be running requires the use of that software, whereas "is in use by" means that that program is running.
You can detect the former, but without some kind of well-designed central registry (!) you can't detect the latter.
Of course there is. Programs get to register to say that they are using a shared DLL. You check to see if your DLL is marked as being in use, and if not, then you uninstall.
How is that supposed to work? A quick googeling for "windows register DLL sharing" give hits for registirng DLLs, but it seems for a different purpose: only registered DLLs are loaded. There is no "registration of a DLL _for_ an EXE" etc. Also this Feature seem only to exist since Vista
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
I'm being serious, why isn't Microsoft Windows 10 top of the list right now?
It comes embedded with software that meets the definitions of spyware (recording your mouse movements and keystrokes) _and_ malware. They even have a way of changing/upgrading it by a way of a command and control server (windows update).
When you can't even trust your OS, further blaming additional software on it seems amusing.
They do not. The Apple Update software is responsible for all updates, and it will try to install QT, never remove it.
I removed JAVA and all Oracle products I no longer use it it requires JAVA to bad
Flash, I still have it but disabled only enable on a select case by case basis but usually wont
Kicked Quick Time to the curb along with real player years ago
In order to solve the problem Apple should rewrite iTunes in Java. This way it ensures that Oracle will always be number 1.
How is that supposed to work?
Well, upon additional research, it looks like I was mistaken. Some programs seem to manage it, so maybe they're maintaining an internal registry of anything which has used the program previously.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I've been getting that big time from Adobe's products lately. Especially Flash when Firefox decides to shut it off till I update. Seems like that happens every week and I'm about ready to tell Firefox to shove it and leave it on even though I know it's bad and needs updating on my Windows machine. Linux thankfully has a centralized updating system.
Anyone with GoPro will need Quicktime for some of the features of the GoPro Studio software to operate. If you lack it, you will get a nagging warning with every launch.
The problem with Apple software on Windows is that if all you want is iTunes, you end up with 3-5 apps installed. iTunes, QuickTime, iCloud, Safari, Apple Software Updater. The other problem is that the software update utility tends to list iTunes as the recommended update to install and leaves the others listed only as optional. It would be better if each app was released separately and updated themselves directly rather than trying to use the software update utility. They should also have an option to automatically install the latest update the same way browsers like Chrome and Firefox do.
-==- Buy a Mac and leave me alone!
I think the last trailer I cared about on Apple.com was the one for Phantom Menace. No one makes their online video content dependent on Apple these days. Most stuff is a link to Youtube.
Adobe is the far bigger problem really.
It's actually likely to be installed and used. It won't just be lingering there on the disk waiting for that obscure app that depends on it.
You know how it goes: Lies, damned lies, and statistics.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Wouldn't that make end users the BIGGEST threat?
Let me correct that headline:
Users are the Biggest Threat To PC Security
Most programs bring their own version of required DLLs and just install them together in the same directory or a subfolder where the program is installed.
So cleaning up is easy.
If you would want a thing like your idea you could use hardlinks to a centralized repository of libs ... which ofc breaks as soon as you have more than one disk or partition ...
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
there wasn't a new minor version every other time I start it and if it stops making me reboot after each update.
I don't think its update fatigue. I think its that each new version is less functional and more frustrating (and typically slower) than the previous one. Also different. For no apparently useful reason to the end user. The new versions are different because "they" keep shoving new features in (like adobe online-something-or other, and itune's insistance to be the media center of everything, even though it *should* just be an audio player).
Five Eyes is the biggest threat to your security
The headline is crap. Apple programs on a PC are not even close to being the biggest threat to PC security.
I'd be surprised, but this is Slashdot.
The reason is simple, Administrator access required, updating is so painful that I usually limit it to once a year, having IT support hanging on the phone for twenty minutes to download and update the products just isn't worth it for the megure improvements offered.
Eudora is so good, so rock-solid stable, they stopped development and have given it away for the past 9 years.
I come here for the love
Apple had a nice bit of software with iTunes once. Then they decide to change it, reorganize an easy-to-use intuitive GUI and remove features. Gee, no wonder people prefer the older versions.
Java wants to install Ask!. Adobe wants to install McAfee. Apple software wants to install Quicktime, which is it's own special brand of hell.
Stop trying to make money off of people with updates, and maybe they'll apply them.
...I'm going to have to say that the top three methods of virus infection I see are java, Adobe Flash, and Adobe Reader. I have yet to see a quicktime or iTunes virus. These two Apple titles may be the most popular outdated software, but it's definitely not the most popular exploit being used.
Here I thought that Windows was the biggest infection vector in windows. Especially when the browser is STILL unnecessarily an unusual removable part if the OS.
Seriously though, what I am seeing for infections are usually a drive-by download that IE executes for some reason, attaching a dll to the explorer.exe process aND inatal Ling a rootkit. Explorer then loads it on each subsequent start.
Many Fortune 500 companies prohibit the use of iTunes on the corporate network. Some users have huge iTunes libraries that make it difficult to defrag the hard drive or transfer user data to the network server in a timely manner. As a help desk technician, I have to tell them that I can't backup their iTunes library and won't fix their computer until they remove iTunes. Some users are understanding, most are not.
holy crap.
Quicktime ?
RealPlayer?
What is this 2001 ?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
See subject & think about it - how difficult would it be to create even say an http streaming socket to obtain 1 line of text from a remote file that has the CURRENT version number of the application & then to compare it to the version number of the program while it's running - & IF different, signal the user there is an update & take them to the download page (or haul the app in right then & there IF the user wants to upgrade/update)?
It's not, & it'd work. That's only 1 posssible way to design it too as shown above. There are others.
Internal to application updaters would trigger checks every single time you start the program involved & they're quite easy to create as shown above (if the developer chose to create such a system that is)
APK
P.S.=> Internal to app updaters aren't bad either as opposed to "single unified updaters" (ala Windows Update OR how Linux does it via apt-get etc. - et al) & would be absolutely current RIGHT WHEN YOU RUN THE PROGRAM checking each time you do for 'better' models... apk
Do you really think that many people have gone that long without having to reinstall Windows? That depends on if you count upgrading to the next major version as a reinstall. I know for myself, ever since I got my first Win98 PC, back in 2000, that I've never reinstalled Windows. It's either been OS upgrades, or when I get new hardware, which about once every five years.
Valve requires quicktime to use their Source video editor and the replay generator in TF2.
Good-bye
It's not a matter of "forgetting" so much as "refusing." For the average user (i.e. those who aren't excited to read update notes), there is no difference between a security update and a cosmetic/functional update. Apple has broken more than one iteration of iTunes with their updates; when users are happy with one that works, they are understandably gun-shy about installing yet another "update."
According to data from Secunia, Apple's software for Windows is now the biggest threat to PC security
...
No, it's the underlying WinTEL platform that's the biggest threat to PC security, and has been since forever
From TFS, the biggest infection vector isn't "Apple", it is simply users who have failed to update.
Clickbait nonsense. Dice. But I repeat myself.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
I use an older version of iTunes because iTunes drains my battery when watching films on the plane. I get 3 hours longe battery life using Windows Video Player. To do this, I download my films and strip the DRM while plugged in. That requires an older iTunes.
Also, the new iTunes UI is such an absolute eye sore that I can't stand trying to find my stuff using it. The quality of Apple software has been consistently dropping on desktop (Windows or Mac) for years.
If Apple wants to continue to drain my wallet of approximately $3000-$4000 a year in devices and media, they'll let it pass
That's the problem. They are not going anywhere. It's Apple pushing this shit on people through iTunes. Quicktime is a totally useless flying piece of shit, worse so than Flash. I have no idea why they insist on keeping it going and why they don't transition to something more common. But it is Apple and they think they are special
At some point, software vendors are going to need to address the issue that when they make crappy updates, people don't apply them.
Consider mobile app store updates: they rarely install other unrelated crapware, don't reconfigure your device settings, and don't require reboots... and users typically install them automatically. Conversely, Apple's PC software updates typically do all of the above, and people regularly decline them as a result.
Hence it's not a problem with update fatigue, it's just a problem with companies producing crappy updates, and users getting conditioned to expect (and decline) crap from certain vendors.
Here's hoping Apple et all get sued at some point for this, and/or something else happens to motivate some improvements to the update process. There's no reason people shouldn't be running updated software, aside from laziness and/or incompetence on the part of the vendors.
From TFS, the biggest infection vector isn't "Apple", it is simply users who have failed to update.
Clickbait nonsense. Dice. But I repeat myself.
EXACTLY what I came here to say. How would the author propose to remedy the situation? FORCED Upgrades?
I can SEE that Slashdot Article Now: Apple Forcing Upgrades on Users Without Permission
I mean, REALLY.
Do newer versions of iTunes uninstall Quicktime when you upgrade? If not, it seems likely that a lot of people would have it installed for no reason when they could easily reduce the attack surface.
I believe iTunes for Windows OFFERS to install/update QuickTime, but like the iCloud for Windows install, it's optional.
iTunes.
iTunes attempts to install a fuckton of useless shit, and let's face it, most people are just going to click 'lolwut okay'.
I don't know what your definition of "Fuckton" is; but it looks like, in addition to the Application itself, it installs 2 Services, plus, if you let it, QuickTime and/or iCloud for Windows.
If you want to see a Fuckton of useless shit, just install the software than comes with any HP scanner or printer!
You mean there's no supported and regularly updated version of Safari for Windows. Just because Apple stopped supporting it on Windows doesn't mean it was completely wiped out of existence.
In fact, people running older unsupported versions of Safari actually fits right into the vibe of what this article is all about
I ran Safari for Windows on my work Windows 7 PC until there were so many incompatible websites that I had to give up and use Chrome instead. I used Safari for Windows mainly because it was the ONLY browser that would resist infections by every damned toolbar and other malware crap that sneaked past Avast! !!!
I was VERY sorry that Apple gave up on Safari for Windows. I think we can blame Google for that. And no, Chrome is NOT a superior browser; just a newer one.
I think the last trailer I cared about on Apple.com was the one for Phantom Menace. No one makes their online video content dependent on Apple these days. Most stuff is a link to Youtube.
And now that there's YouRedTube, how long before EVERYTHING on there has embedded, NON-SKIPPABLE Ads?
Amirite?
This software would be great if it weren't for the f#@king users!
Were you, by chance, confusing it with Windows Installer (MSI) component sharing? If two different installers install the same DLL globally (and register it properly), then it becomes a shared component, such that uninstalling one will still keep it, but uninstalling both will remove it.
You can use symlinks - it just means you have to do your own refcounting for the DLL to know when it should be deleted.
Why don't you get your head out of your ass and understand that the days of being a Windows-only-shop are over and you will have to support a stable infrastructure without having full control of the clients that are there. You still need to provide services, yet you do not have airtight control over your clients. Maybe you should educate yourself and look at some real solutions instead of the Windows lock-in you're so used to? My organization has the exact same problem. We have moved on and use Apple/Linux all over the place. IT has no clue how to support it, as all they know is point-and-click Windows that won't work with anything else. This is the same IT that nearly killed an acquired development office by refusing to support the linux development boxes on their precious network, forcing a great workforce to ditch their linux machines and run Windows. We lost half of the developers before we found out about this idiocy and put a stop to it.
You're a service. You serve, not command.
I don't update iTunes because the interface from version 11 and up is crap. I can't avoid having to use the newer version on my Macbook unless I want to stop updating OSX, too, since iTunes is a bundled app it gets new versions installed with new versions of OSX. But I'm running Windows 8.1 on my desktop machine and it still runs the much older iTunes 10.7 just fine.
It's due to iTunes (which is "popular" due to iOS). Quicktime always tries to shoehorn its way into every iTunes installation/upgrade.
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
Give Opera a try. It's actually really nice. It's built off the Chromium source now but too divergent to be folded back in, probably. They rip out all the Google services but you can still use the Chrome extensions and there's a ton of Opera extensions so you won't find anything lacking that you're not already lacking. It hardly ever pops up in the exploits list and is updated regularly. There's a dev, beta, and stable build. It's fairly light, all things considered, and rather feature-rich. The devs seem to be receptive of complaints and feature ideas. 'Snot bad... I'm waiting to opine more on Vivaldi but Opera is pretty damned awesome.
If you're stuck using Windows then it's probably your best choice but you won't know until you try it. It's worth it, in my opinion. The interface is intuitive and clean. The layout is well reasoned. All in all, it works for me. It may suit your needs. Who knows?
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Any fool who uses Quicktime is well, a fool. So this is like complaining that bridges build from sponges are poor engineering. Who the hell with half a brain would do that.
But it is not the user who is a fool for using quicktime. It is the user for using some crap software from 1998 that installs Quicktime along with the crap software.
I have long argued that most software would be best off if it could just install the associated crap that the crap developers seem to think is a good idea alongside the software.
If anything good is going to come from this extreme sandboxing that comes part in parcel with appstores it is this single feature. No more trashing my entire system and installing toolbar/desktop/driver software for something that I run once a lifetime. I don't even like this stupid bridge crap that adobe tries to include.
Basically if the OS allows the software to run at any time after I have exited the application then the OS needs work. Unless I have explicitly allowed that software to run in the background, on startup, or to a schedule. If I were an even marginally more angry person I would regularly lose my monitors to my fist when crap like Java asks me to upgrade when I am 100% certain that A) I didn't install it, and B) if I did that I would have said, "NEVER UPDATE!!!!"
Give Opera a try. It's actually really nice. It's built off the Chromium source now but too divergent to be folded back in, probably.
Thanks for the tip!
I didn't really like Opera on the Mac; but that was a long time ago, and in a Galaxy far, far away...
Time to try it again, eh? Is it still non-free?
Free as in beer. Free as in source is available. Not free in that you can take their proprietary bits and include them in your distributed changes. So, not entirely free but close enough for anyone but a zealot.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Free as in beer. Free as in source is available. Not free in that you can take their proprietary bits and include them in your distributed changes. So, not entirely free but close enough for anyone but a zealot.
Cool, thanks! I'll give it a spin. Anything to get out from under the "Don't Get Caught Doing Anything Evil" company (Google). ;-)
but the depressing knowledge that upgrades often carry unwanted malware like more code designed to spy on you or take control of YOUR property so that apple/oracle/adobe/etc have more control over your computer than you do.
Yeah, that's how Chrome does it, that's actually how Java has done it for a long time already (JREs "expire" around the dates of scheduled security updates and refuse to run applets until you upgrade), it's how Apple should do it too.
Modern Java's aren't actually that bad, security wise. The problem is there's a massive long tail of old Windows machines that are still running ancient JVMs before even things like expiry were added.
users who have failed to update THEIR APPLE SOFTWARE
as compared to other popular third-party software
Quicktime for Windows is also very out of date, since Apple hasn't bothered to update it to a 64-bit multithreaded implementation... so in addition to being full of security holes, it's also simply crap, which reduces people's incentive to keep it up to date.
My name is Yaz too but I'm not such a douche as to copy my name into the body of my post, especially since it is readily observable in the username field of my post. Most people are smart enough not to copy their username into the body, duplicating information and making themselves look like narcissistic assholes. What makes you so special?
Yaz
Obviously :)
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
You'd be surprised at how many people don't know that Windows supports symlinks, even though it's been 9 years now.
I was more yoking because of the overhead of 'keeping a count' and/or not being able to prevent a removal if the linked file.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
You'd be surprised at how many people don't know that Windows supports symlinks, even though it's been 9 years now.
You'd be surprised at how many people don't know what QuickTime actually is, even though it's almost 24 years old.
It's due to iTunes (which is "popular" due to iOS). Quicktime always tries to shoehorn its way into every iTunes installation/upgrade.
Not since 10.5 - which is 4 years old.
"Chrome has thankfully started warning users who try to download it." - by andymadigan (792996) on Sunday June 14, 2015 @03:48PM (#49909947)
Google can try explaining it vs. proof my ware's CLEAN (from VirusTotal which GOOGLE owns, you stupid freak):
MalwareBytes' hpHosts Admin (MalwareBytes employee who also has the source & verified it safe too) hosts & recommends it -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl... & MalwareBytes = BEST antivirus per this VERY recent testing of them all http://www.av-test.org/en/news...
&
It's GUARANTEED safe & clean per it being checked by 57 antivirus programs recently in BOTH its 64-bit model https://www.virustotal.com/en/...
+
In its 32-bit model also https://www.virustotal.com/en/...
* :)
In case you hadn't noticed it, like when you made your PUNY THREATS effetely *trying* to "blackmail me" on Hilton Hotels here http://slashdot.org/comments.p... ?
(which I could give 2 fucks about, I made the money already on a successfully done large scale project with them on contract)
I SMOKED YOU TOTALLY @ EVERY TURN, & who started it twice here http://slashdot.org/comments.p... AND HERE TOO http://apple.slashdot.org/comm... saying "I should die painfully" etc. - et al?
You failed badly on all accounts.
APK
P.S.=> Especially funny is that you work for CLOUDWORDS (an advertiser affiliate of Marketo) which tips your hand & PROVED YOUR ILL MOTIVES for your stupidity, running away from this most of all -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
... apk
"uBlock is using 33MB of RAM" - by andymadigan (792996) on Friday June 12, 2015 @10:31PM (#49902053)
Inefficient: Hosts @ 3-11mb w/ current data & does things adblock variants can't & U RAN FROM IT http://apple.slashdot.org/comm... ).
UBlock uses 63++ MB & AdBlock = 128mb++ -> http://www.ghacks.net/2014/06/...
SCREENSHOT -> http://cdn.ghacks.net/wp-conte...
BEST UBlock's done = 38mb/ABP = 64mb -> http://www.extremetech.com/wp-... From http://www.extremetech.com/wp-...
* See 'p.s.' below - Says all (& I didn't do the saying!)
---
"which blocks more ads? Answer: uBlock/Adblock" by andymadigan (792996) on Sunday June 14, 2015 @12:04AM (#49907001)
WRONG - "Almost ALL Ads Blocked"'s PAID NOT TO by default-> http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/...
&
ABP too http://finance.yahoo.com/news/...
UBlock/Adblock = far less efficient on CPU & RAM (added messagepassing, SLOW usermode vs. hosts in kernelmode) & NEITHER does a fraction of what hosts do in more speed, security, reliability, & anonymity.
---
"your system blocks fewer ads" by andymadigan (792996) on Sunday June 14, 2015 @12:04AM (#49907001)
See above: + hosts do MORE w/ less via 1st link above!
---
"I'm more than happy to spend an extra 1% of my computer's power to block far more ads than your shitty idea" by andymadigan (792996) on Sunday June 14, 2015 @12:04AM (#49907001)
You're 'happy' being illogical & stupid?
AdBlock's 4++gb & 100% CPU use inefficiency -> https://blog.mozilla.org/nneth...
+
ClarityRay defeats it & NOT hosts (clarityray BLOCKS addons via native browser methods).
---
YOU started it -> http://apple.slashdot.org/comm... & here too http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
I finished YOU WITH IT all above!
APK
P.S.=> Howard Stark in "Capt. America" - hosts (Cap's Shield) vs. AdBlock & variants (steel):
"It's stronger than steel & 1/3rd the weight"
So
"Run, Forrest: RUN!!!" & "eat your words"
... apk
I decline updates not only for Apple products, but for many other applications when they are too frequent. Every time I open a PDF document, Adobe Acrobat wants to update. EVERY TIME. I don't use it every day, and when I do use it, it's already out of data...
There is never a good time to update... I've got some stuff copied in memory, I want to create a quick text document and paste it in, open up Notepad++... UPDATE... STFU Notepad++, I'm doing something important now... after your done, you don't go out of your way to update the product. When I cancel the update on Notepad++, when I'm done using it, I don't manually run "Check for updates" or reopen it to update... no it bugs me again the next time I have some important stuff to do and I'll push it off again.
There is no good way to update software on Windows (Not sure about Win10). Every time you want to use some software, it bugs you for an update... you press "Remind me later", you want to do it, but not now, now you have some important stuff to do. What you want is to update all of the software, at once, when it's right for you. But windows doesn't have that.
Ubuntu is great with that. You turn on the PC, go to use a Word Processing software and it doesn't bug you "Hey, Update me NOW!"... no, you print your document. After your done, when it convenient to you, you can "Update All Software" and Ubuntu takes care of everything. It will update everything that needs updating. You don't have to open individual programs and click 'Update' for everyone of them.
I see this as an OS problem. Windows doesn't provide a way for 3ed party software to be auto updated. They update there stuff, and some drivers... All other updates have to happen through individual software. ... people are sick of all the updates all the time. Even if Apple asked to be updated only once a year, Adobe will screw things up with there daily updates, so when Apple asked for an update, you roll your eyes "Not another update... Cancel".