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500M iTunes downloads... Is Apple being sneaky?

M

macfaninpdx

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 6, 2007
198
0
First, the disclaimer: I have several macs at home, and love them dearly. And I love pretty much all things mac. But at work (alas) I must use a PC. :mad:

So previously I had installed QuickTime for Windows. The default download from Apple is iTunes+QuickTime, so I was careful to select only QuickTime because I did not want iTunes installed on this machine. Yesterday, I downloaded the Safari beta for Windows becuase I am sick of IE6. Again, the default selection on the download page is Safari+QuickTime, but this time I selected this download since I already have QuickTime installed.

So I ran the installer, and it asked me if I want to install Software Update. Well I think this is a nice piece of software on my mac, so I went ahead and installed this as well. And then I was off happily browsing with Safari in Windows. :)

Then the Software Update popped up a message telling me there is an update. It says there is a Security update for QuickTime, and an update to iTunes + QuickTime. So by simply clicking Update, I now have iTunes installed on my machine. Even though I was trying to avoid it.

I know there are ways to not have it installed, but my point is this: isn't that very Windows-like behavior to sneak in other software in installers and updaters? Aren't they being a bit assumptive with getting software onto my machine? Is this helping their claim that they have 500M iTunes users out there?

What do you think?
 
Eidorian said:
If you only wanted Quicktime.
Click to expand...

Yes, I realize that. My post was not asking for instructions on how to download QuickTime. But rather to see if anyone else agrees with me that they are making it confusing to the average user? I followed the path that most people (Windows users especially) would take to get Safari, or QuickTime installed on their machine. And that path led me to install several other things.

Isn't that different behavior than on the Mac?
 
It is sneaky. But it is probably more often that someone accidentally downloads QT without iTunes and then wonders where it is than a situation like yours.
 
kuebby said:
It is sneaky. But it is probably more often that someone accidentally downloads QT without iTunes and then wonders where it is than a situation like yours.
Click to expand...

Maybe, but iTunes is much more publiczed (The whole "iPod+iTunes" thing") then QT, so one would probably head for the big tab that says "iTunes" on it.

It is sneaky, but most software companies do it, so you really can't blame Apple for following suite.
 
Is the default Quicktime and Safari because Safari relies on quicktime being installed to work properly?

Same with iTunes and Quicktime?
 
Cassie said:
It is sneaky, but most software companies do it, so you really can't blame Apple for following suite.
Click to expand...

Maybe so, but they don't do it with their software for macs, do they? Maybe they do, and I just don't realize it.
 
macfaninpdx said:
Then the Software Update popped up a message telling me there is an update. It says there is a Security update for QuickTime, and an update to iTunes + QuickTime. So by simply clicking Update, I now have iTunes installed on my machine. Even though I was trying to avoid it.
Click to expand...

On my windoze pc, it clearly states "Select the items you want to install, then click Install"

If you uncheck iTunes + QuickTime, then it just installs the QuickTime security update.

It's exactly the same on my mac.
 
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