Bits.Bytes.

It amazes me just how even the biggest companies continue to make a very fundamental mistake — failing to clearly label the versions of their software. How many companies release software and fail to indicate the release date and/or version numbers, leaving you wondering if you should download it or not? More than you’d think! Google is one such. You cannot know the versions of their various software until you download them and install them. Which is a waste of

1. My bandwidth 
2. Their bandwidth 
3. My time 
4. My hard disk space and ultimately 
5. My sanity

Look at three examples:

 

 

Google Destop Search

 

Google Picasa

Google Talk

But Google is not too bad. Picasa is just under 5 MB and Talk is just under 2 MB

Steve Jobs’ Apple Computer is another culprit. You cannot know the version of iTunes until you download all 35MB of it and install it. This is crazy.

Another colossal annoyance is needless coupling of products. The less said about Google Pack the better. I do not for one second believe the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Another culprt is (drums please) Apple’s iTunes. Packaged with the iTunes installer is QuickTime. This is not a problem if you’re installing iTunes for the first time. It is if you want to upgrade iTunes from 6.0.4 to 6.0.5. I see no reason to keep downloading a humongous file for a micro-version change.

 

After all, if they are really integrated it would have a seamless single installation, rather than the current iTunes installer calling the QuickTime installer! Why not split them up into 3 Packages like so - iTunes Complete (6.0.5 & QuickTime 7.1) - iTunes 6.0.5 (Requires Quickime 7.1) - QuickTime 7.1 A final culprit is again our friend Apple with its iPod update software. If you want to download the latest software for your iPod Nano it merrily comes down the wire with software for the iPod Video, the iPod Mini and indeed each and every iPod’s software,topping the scales at 50+ MB.

I cannot think of a single good reason for this.

Dear Apple, I am perfectly aware what sort of iPod I have, thank you very much! Let me download exactly what I need!