Stefan Küng wrote:
> Molle Bestefich wrote:
> > Stefan Küng wrote:
> >> I think what you're seeing is the automatic check for updates which
> >> happens every seven days. You can disable that check if you really want
> >> - but I wouldn't advice that.
> >
> > I've done that anyway.
> > I find it *EXTREMLY* rude for any application to call home without
> > asking me first.
>
> Sorry, but that's not rude.
Yes it is.
Sorry, but you don't get to decide what's rude, because you're not the
end user - I am :-).
I ultimately decide what I find rude.
> Almost all applications which release new versions do that.
> That's the default.
I don't think so, but whatever.
> And you *can* deactivate it.
Only to find it reactivated after the next upgrade, I imagine.
Regardless, that's not the point.
> > If I'm asked during the installation process, I always say "yes, please".
>
> Checking for a new version during installation isn't enough.
You misunderstood me.
I was talking about the installer asking the user if "Is it ok to
check for updates from time to time?". Probably just as a checkbox
that's checked per default. That's what I see others doing.
You're right that checking for an upgrade during the installation is
just plain dumb :-).
> We have to check for newer versions from time to time,
> so the user gets notified *after* (s)he has installed TSVN.
No problem there, but you have to ask me kindly if you can phone home
from time to time, otherwise you will be blocked.
> I'm really tired of receiving
> crashreports for 1.0.x versions (yes, I still get some of those!).
I can understand that.
I'm really tired of applications that send all sorts of information
home without asking me first. It's an annoyance to me that they can't
just state their intentions up front. Instead I have to go configure
a personal firewall, blech...
> > If I'm not asked, I'll note to myself that the particular application
> > apparently has something it wants to hide. Perhaps they're collecting
> > a bunch of statistics from my PC, perhaps they're sending home my
> > webbanking account numbers, or perhaps they're just checking up on how
> > often I use the application. Either way, not going to happen.
>
> You can be suspicious with closed applications. But with open source
> apps? We can't hide anything from you, the whole sourcecode is available.
I don't personally know the developers.
And I don't have the time to proactively follow every commit to the
source repository before the application happens to self-update with a
new version.
I much rather like a trust-based approach.
You ask me whether I trust you to automatically update this piece of
software, I tell you yes or no.
(If I tell you no, don't install the crash report feature. Gray out
the checkbox. Another problem solved.)
> Would your firewall even notice a call-home from an app which *has* to
> access the internet (e.g. a mail client, messenger program, ...) - you
> should be more worried with those, because they know that they most
> likely won't be detected calling home.
Yes. Just like TSVN can update my local WC of the TSVN repo, but not
ask the same server about software updates, my browser cannot phone
home to the mozilla servers (because they didn't ask nicely) (oh, and
because I hate that Firefox removes the custom search engines when
upgrading, hehe) but they can browse the web.
As far as mail bugs go, I'm stripping all scripting and externally linked items.
I remove web bugs - these are the worst - with AdBlock and a premade
list of known bad guys.
This also helps nicely with browser performance by the way - don't
know why some insist on using Java applets for web bugs. Probably
because applets can survive page reloads, as long as the reloaded-to
page is within the same domain. Hmm.
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Received on Wed Apr 12 18:30:40 2006