Software manufacturers going too far?

[DarkeWolf]

In the modern day, we have applications, software, and programs that try to do everything. Trying to roll as much functionality, over a widespread spectrum, as possible. Especially in the fields of personal PC protection, such as Antivirus and Firewall, etc.

A lot of programs IMO end up being a bloated goat, that sucks down huge amounts of resources, gets into areas that we prefer they would leave alone, and sometimes really make a mess of things.

 

Some of the softwares that I consider to be bloatware are Nero Burn, iTunes, some of the AV progs, and whatnot.

 

I mean, some of this software is just incredibly invasive. Taking over this and that, Windows wanting permissions for practically everything, or deciding to shut down whatever programs it feels like, some of them consuming massive cpu and ram usage, others bloating up the hard drive with files without permission, all kinds off stuff.

 

Anybody else think that some of these software manufacturers need to chill?

[JimboUK]

This has been a pain for years, to justify a new release of something they feel they should add features and over time decent programs become bloated horrors. What really annoys me is their tendency to get everything to start with windows. My camcorder software starts with windows, why? there really isn't a need. HTC Sync starts with windows yet the phone syncs over the mobile network or WiFi anyway, it's rarely going to get used.

[DarkeWolf]

Yeah, I totally agree Jim :thumbsup:

Its like... I wouldnt mind if they had a polling service, to detect when the device is plugged in, turned on, etc. But having it run full time? Some of them only take up maybe 200-800 kilobytes, but STILL. Its something that can gum up the works, or conflict with something else, and just adds to the log files.

And like you said with cameras and video cameras.... MOST people save that stuff onto a SDcard from the device. Why have that service running full time on the machine, when a card reader device just sits there, taking up almost nothing from the computer?

 

Device drivers. There's another complaint of mine. Almost NOBODY distributes JUST the drivers anymore!!! You have to install their software, in order for the drivers to install! And some of them are set up so that if you uninstall said software, you also uninstall the drivers! A friend of mine's printer is like that. The software hangs at shutdown, and causes her windows to shut down incorrectly. Looking thru her logs, it's because of the printer software not shutting down correctly. Uninstalled that, and the comp shuts down fine... but printer loses the drivers!! :verymad:

 

Yeah, my HTC touch pro... man, that thing was a HORROR trying to get it to sync. And yeah, had to run that htc sync software along with it. Thankfully, I upgraded away from that hunk of junk and was able to uninstall the htc crapware. (I do miss that cool ringtone creator the phone had tho....)

 

My biggest gripe right now is iTunes. I just got an iPod, and of course, HAD to install iTunes, in order to even connect the thing to my computer to load tunes and whatnot. Gawd I hate this software. It's SLOW. And wants to convert all my wma files to mp3 AND download album art as soon as it fires up! I've got spare hdd space, but I dont want this idiot program sucking it down.

Oh, and it FORCES an install of QuickTime. I HATE QT!! I've hated it for years!

 

And toolbars! I understand that they get funding from such and such company, to have the toolbar software accompany their product. It helps keep software free, so I can't complain about THAT. But what gets me, is such and such software ASKS you if you want to install such and such toolbar, and if you choose "No".... it INSTALLS IT ANYWAY! Grrrrrrrrrrrr :evil:

[JimboUK]

HTC Sync is a waste of space, everything is synced with Google automatically without going near the PC. If I add a contact to Google, it appears on my phone, if I add someone to my phone they appear on Google. The same thing with the calender. Adding music and video is done by mounting the SD card via USB and apps come from the marketplace. The only time I ever used it was to update my old Hero, the Desire I have now gets OTA updates so it's not needed for that.

 

Don't get me started on iTunes, I don't use my iPod touch because it means dealing with that god awful piece of software. Not that I can use it much now anyway, the last update turned it into a brick that plays music every now and again, thanks Apple, I'll buy your products again. :thumbsup:

 

I use Chrome now so I escape the toolbar hell, some application launched Internet Explorer the other day and I was horrified at the number of toolbars. None of them were the horrible spyware type things, they were yahoo, google, ask and others but I was shocked at how many got installed even when I'd said no to all of them.

[DarkeWolf]

ahhh, sounds like you're running an Android phone. Meh, dont ya love it when manufacturers dont compare notes and throw in redundancies to each other?

 

I've been hunting around for some iTunes alternatives. Google search came up with some perspective hits that I'm gonna try out using "itunes alternative" as the search parameter. I found a couple I'm gonna try out the next time I need to DL to ipod.

 

Ugh... that is NOT good. I'm really, really sorry to hear that about it getting near-bricked by a patch. One of the reasons why I don't let my stuff auto update if I can help it. Especially when the device costs $200 + american!

Sounds like you need to do a firmware revision. http://www.blogsdna.com/7115/how-to-downgrade-ipod-touch-3g2g-3-1-3-to-3-1-2-os.htm

Keep in mind tho that I haven't done it myself (no updates here ;) ) so there's the disclaimer: Do so at your own risk! Tho anyplace that advertises being able to jailbreak ipods or iphones should be able to do it. Give them a call and find out. craigslist.com is a good source, under ipod and cricket flash

And I do have to note that the actual jailbreaking would void the warranty. So if thats a concern, only have them do the firmware revision.

It might also be necessary to use an older version of iTunes afterwards. I'd do a complete uninstall of it, using something like revo uninstaller, or run something like ccleaner afterwards to remove the vestiges. There's a site called oldapps.com that carries older versions of freeware. I'm using v9.1 that I got from there, just to be safe.

Tho.... yeah.... iTunes freakin' blitzed my NIC drivers. :mad: And I had to comepletely reinstall the NIC in order to get conn to the 'net again. :verymad:

 

iTunes is definitely an invasive software. In my book, its about as bad as catching a virus!

[JimboUK]

I tried rolling back the firmware as soon as OS4 started playing up but alas all I get is errors and pain. It's messed up 3G and 3GS iPhones as well, I'd be furious if I had one of those. I've given up with it, anyway there's nothing it can do that my HTC can't so it can stay broken. :thumbsup:

[krimzin]

I finally just ended up getting different, less invasive software that performs those programs functions without being a pain in the ass. I have Sony's Media Go instead of I-tunes [god I hate apple :wallbash: ] And instead of photoshop, I use GIMP, which is actually a lot nicer to use. I usually just transfer files manually to mobile phones instead of using a program. A lot of the reason I don't use many programs is because I use Vista x64 which is compatible with just about nothing lol

[JimboUK]

Bought a Fuji camera a few weeks back and needless to say it came with a CD, normally I wouldn't bother because I tend to use a card reader and move pictures manually. This time I thought I'd see if it done anything useful, I installed it which went fine until it asked me to reboot for some unknown reason, anyway reboot I did. Using the thing proved to be slightly more problematic, it insisted I signed up for their "Community", muttering four letter words under my breath I hit the register button which promptly gave a "can't find something or other" error. I thought I'd register on their community website and then enter the details into the program, I wasn't going to be defeated that easily. I registered without too much fuss, put the details into the program and it told me that I didn't exist. The upside was it finally let me into the program, it turned out to a basic program with the ability to upload to the site that doesn't want me. I could hardly contain my joy. Oh well I thought at least I can use this to transfer my photos, "the hell you will" was the programs answer as nothing at all happened when I plugged the camera in. At this point it got uninstalled, a quick look on Fujis community site afterwards informed me that the software doesn't work for anyone. Thank god for card readers.