Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 30th Jul 2008 21:56 UTC, submitted by peskypescado
I have written about if before: updating programs on your computer - if you're not using a Linux distribution, that is - is a total and utter mess. On Windows and Mac OS X, there are roughly four ways of updating applications. The application notifies of new updates, and then downloads them when you click 'yes', the application updates from within the application itself, or the application requires a special update program running in the background. These are all quite annoying, since they interfere with your workflow (as opposed to, say, running "apt-get upgrade" every morning). The fourth method is the official vendor channel, Windows/Microsoft Update in Windows and Software Update in Mac OS X. Paul Ellis argues that to alleviate the mess, Microsoft should open up Microsoft Update for everyone else - and similar arguments are made concerning Apple's Software Update.
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Member since:
2007-09-06
Adding third party repositories for each application starts to suck pretty quick. Maemo Linux is trying to get all third party package maintainers to move there stuff to the official "extras" repo for the same reason.
I think MS offering an open API that learns a different source for each updatable program will get messy very quickly. MS would really need to open up the centralized Windows Update to non-MS products but that means hosting programs and updates for things directly competing against Office and such.
It would be a benefit to the Windows end user though more than a few of the anti-MS camp members will be threatened by the prospect of loosing the repository competitive argument.
I benefit from it on the *nix side and wouldn't find it unwelcome for my Windows boots but I think there are too many conflicting business interests in the win32/win64 paranah tank.