[governance] Software Distribution / Turning software updating mechanisms, into a self-serving distribution channel

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Mozilla CEO: Apple's Safari-To-Windows Distribution Scheme Is Wrong
Apple made Safari version 3.1 available for Windows through its 
Software Update control panel and as a download from its Web site.

By Thomas Claburn,  
InformationWeek CMP Media LLC
March 21, 2008
 
URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206905256
 
Art. Ref.:
http://www.informationweek.com/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206905256

Print:
http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=206905256
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Mozilla CEO John Lilly on Friday lashed out at Apple for turning its software
updating mechanism into a self-serving distribution channel for its Safari Web
browser. 

"What Apple is doing now with their Apple Software Update on Windows is wrong,"
Lilly said in a blog post on Friday. "It undermines the trust relationship
great companies have with their customers, and that's bad -- not just for
Apple, but for the security of the whole Web." 

Mozilla makes the Firefox Web browser, which competes with Microsoft's Internet
Explorer and Apple's Safari. 

On Tuesday, Apple released Safari 3.1, a new version of its Web browser. It
made Safari available for Mac OS X and Windows through its Software Update
control panel and as a download from its Web site. 

What Lilly objects to is the fact that while Safari comes pre-installed on
Apple's Macintosh computers, making version 3.1 an update, Apple's browser
isn't standard issue on Windows machines. Apple has thus converted a channel
previously used for patching existing software into a channel for distributing
new software. 

It's not yet clear whether recent market share gains on the part of Apple's
Safari browser pose a threat to the usage of Mozilla's Firefox. Since the first
quarter of 2006, both Safari and Firefox have gained market share, at the
expense of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, according to figures from
TheCounter.com and Net Applications. But Lilly's comments suggest worries about
that possibility. 

According to Net Applications, Microsoft Internet Explorer held 75.1% of Web
browser market share in the first quarter of 2008, Mozilla's Firefox held
17.3%, and Apple's Safari held 5.8%. 

"Apple has made it incredibly easy -- the default, even -- for users to install
ride along software that they didn't ask for, and maybe didn't want," Lilly
said. "This is wrong, and borders on malware distribution practices. It's wrong
because it undermines the trust that we're all trying to build with users.
Because it means that an update isn't just an update, but is maybe something
more. Because it ultimately undermines the safety of users on the Web by
eroding that relationship. It's a bad practice and should stop." 

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
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