One Benefit Of Web-Based Software: No Crapware Included

from the it's-the-little-things dept

Mon, Aug 28th 2006 9:18pm — Mike Masnick

As everyone is talking about Google's (not particularly surprising or interesting) move into offering hosted business apps (basically taking their existing mail and calendar apps, and allowing you to run them for your business), it seems that the story of AOL's new download software being criticized for secretly installing plenty of additional apps is perhaps more indicative of the drive away from client-side software. These days, it's gotten to the point where you basically can't trust any downloadable software at all not to clutter your machine, whether on purpose or not. So, while many people tout the "access it anywhere" or "no setup involved" features of web-based software, the simple lack of additional annoying crud getting installed on your computer may turn into a powerful added incentive for moving towards hosted apps.

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11 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 28 Aug 2006 @ 9:47pm

And AOL adding crapware is new news to anyone???
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DittoBox, 28 Aug 2006 @ 9:56pm

Re:
'Adding crapware?' More like it already is crapware...
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Anti-Norton, 28 Aug 2006 @ 10:39pm

They All Learned It From...
(They All Learned It From...) Symantic Corp and thier amazing ability to hide crap in your system that you'll "MAYBE" find years later. Sure, there's a tool that will remove everything ever made by Symantic, but what kind of sign is that, when you need ANOTHER tool beyond the simple 'click and uninstall' that the common user is accustomed to?

Oh, and I'm sure a lot of this crap is stated in the software dissclosure upon install, but who has the 2 hours and a lawyer present to read and comprehend wtf they're talking about?

Really all this is, is the large software companies wanting to keep "trend" records of thier customers when they know very well that most of thier customers don't bother reading the install text, and then 4 months down the road when thier computer is bluescreening, software is conflicting and your firewall is begging you to let parts unknown access the net for 'whatever', you get the treat of dealing with customer service personel that can't even speak your damned language.

And anyone really wonders why people pirate this chit? There comes a point where a person stops paying for abuse and just takes it for free.
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Don, 29 Aug 2006 @ 1:45am

I agree with Anon. How is AOL adding crapware news to anyone? They've been adding just software long before 9.0 even came out. There have even ben programs available for years on download sites devoted to removing some of AOL's crap. If the "mainstream" tech world is just now discovering this fact, most of the are truly incompetent.
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Ryan, 29 Aug 2006 @ 3:21am

aol sucks!
If your already dumb enough to use AOL then you deserve crapware to teach you a lesson
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Aug 2006 @ 4:48am

bah
You know, it's not just AOL. As far as I see it, (And I think I'll nail it on the head here) ANYTHING at all you download has a High probability rate of installing crap on your computer.

Hell, A "Clean" Windows install is so full of freakin crap. Microsoft puts spyware into just about every MS program that exists. (I've yet to find one they haven't, but I'm sure it's out there. Maybe Win 3.11?)

The best solution, get Spybot S&D and install tea timer.

Yeah, it's going to be annoying. It asks you whether or not any program has the right to adjust the registry. But you know what? Your computer will be MORE secure (as we all know a completely secure computer does not connect to the internet) and then get a good firewall, like zonealarm and only add programs you run normally to the exception list. This way, when some random piece of crapware tries to access the internet, you can say, "F**k you and die!" While clicking the remember this setting, & deny buttons.
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Greg, 29 Aug 2006 @ 5:40am

RE: Comment #6: What the hell are you talking about - Spyware in Microsoft programs? What?

I think this is actually an often overlooked benefit of web-based software. The downshot is that you have to watch for web apps that install any kind of plug-in, or use Active X controls, because those can still burn you.
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whitey, 29 Aug 2006 @ 7:03am

They all suck
It seems like all the software I've purchaced wants to be the "most important program" on my computer. I hate that. Take Roxio CD creator for instance they all put their stupid icon in the task bar and have 3 or 4 exe's running, ready for you to create a new CD or something. Like that's all I want to do. Anybody else ever use TurboTax? What a nightmare getting that crap off. Last year I went with HRBlock's tool, which is an online app, much better. Then there's free software that is supposedly OK. RealPlayer? Quicktime? why the hell do these apps need to have multiple exe's running, the moment you boot up?
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drkkgt, 29 Aug 2006 @ 7:44am

Re: They all suck
Don't forget adobe products and all the "quick start" exe they run at boot. Even in reader. Now why would reader need to be so bloated that it needs to load half at startup just so it appears to start fast?

Really not looking forward to what crap they put into dreamweaver.
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Topher3105, 29 Aug 2006 @ 9:07am

No, but
You just get adware secretly installed, spyware, and then your trying to write a document and have a large floating ad layer appear over your work.

Web apps are not a solution, they will, if anything, exacberate the problems because they will tend to be cheap, or free, but will rely on the same crap we want to get rid of online, such as spam, spyware, and ad and adware.

I would rather pay $300 for a desktop application that has no ads then to use an online app full of crap.
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mroonie, 30 Aug 2006 @ 10:10am

AOL is sinking....
Freedom to Tinker writes a post based on this particular post. It was very insightful. He talks about the different stages that AOL and Google are at in the software business model and that they each have different goals to what they would like to achieve before moving forward. Google just hasn't reached that step where they need to add in all the additional crud yet.

I agree that software companies seem to be less concerned with the client side of the application and rather are looking for more ways to profit off of their customers. But seems like a recipe for disaster to me. Especially for AOL who has been trouble controlling their spam, and their company information.
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