Microsoft: Open Update For All
I recently had an issue updating Google Gears to be compatible with Firefox 3.0.1. The Firefox updater didn’t find any updates and if I installed Gears again it was still at the same incompatible version. It was only after I uninstalled it and installed it again that it finally worked. This made me realize something, updating software on your computer should be a lot easier than it is right now and Microsoft should be the one to do it.
The State Of Updates
Right now almost every program on my computer has its own update mechanism of some sort. They primarily fall into three categories.
- Notify me of an available update
- Pidgin
- WinSCP
- VMware Server
- Udate themselves from within the program
- Firefox
- Thunderbird
- Quicken
- Opera
- Photoshop
- Special updating program that runs at startup and constantly uses memory
- Java
- Quicktime/iTunes
- Google Pack (Picasa, Desktop Search, etc)
- Thinkpad utilities
With every program doing its own thing, keeping your software up-to-date is a bit of a hassle and certainly not something the “average” user does.
Windows/Microsoft Update
Microsoft has their own updating software of course: Windows Update. It can already be extended to update other Microsoft products through Microsoft Update. They also serve up drivers for various WHQL’d hardware through it.
Why not open this up for any program on your system? This could be another feature to help differentiate Windows Vista or Windows 7 from the competition (OS X or Windows XP). This would also address one of the pain-points to “boxed” software that web applications don’t have.
Updates ala YUM, APT, or Xbox Live
I’m not saying that Microsoft should host files and provide bandwidth for every Windows application on the planet. They could create a secure way for third-party applications to be updated from the developer’s site through Windows Update.
YUM or APT on Linux is similar to this concept but it only works reliably if you only install software from repositories. Xbox Live also manages updates for every piece of software that runs on an Xbox 360 and it rectifies one of the main reasons for why I don’t PC game: it is such a pain to keep games up-to-date.
Ultimately Microsoft is a platform company, and this would make the Windows platform more attractive to users and developers. Having a unified method and interface would greatly simplify keeping software up-to-date, particularly for less savvy users. It could also have the effect of improving system security by making it easier for people to have the latest version of programs (Quicktime, Reader, Flash) that have been recently targeted through web browsers by hackers as well.
I would think that developers would appreciate not having to maintain software just to help…maintain software too. It really is kind of silly that everyone has to reinvent-the-wheel each time for updating their applications. Certainly there are some details for Microsoft to work out on how to implement this, but that is their problem. I’m just the idea man. :)
*Before anyone sends me an e-mail about this, yes I do know that there are programs such as RadarSync that claim to keep all of your applications up-to-date. I have yet to try one that is easy to use and actually works however.
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11 Responses to “Microsoft: Open Update For All”
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In order for Microsoft to provide a service such as this it would mean charging thousands of dollars to any developer to sign some sort of partnership agreement and get Microsoft certification. The red tape would be a headache, but I can imagine Microsoft doing something as such in the future. It is more likely to anger developers rather than making them happy. Microsoft would likely also remove some of the security messages for such “certified” software. It’s a good little business, but only really good for Microsoft and the consumers, not for everyone else.
Great idea, Paul. Another issue this solves is the inefficiency associated with software updates. My wife hates how every other day the computer is always updating something.
If there were a global way to force updates to only happen within a certain window of time once a week… It would make it so we could use our computers again right after we turn them on, rather than waiting for whatever program that inevitably needs to hog resources first.
I don’t know this would be something they would have to charge an exorbitant amount for. There are a lot of areas where you can leverage Microsoft platforms without onerous processes and charges (Live ID, Messenger and Maps controls, HealthVault, etc). They could have certified and non-certified software however.
“only really good for Microsoft and the consumers, not for everyone else.” Wouldn’t “eveyone else” in that statement be a very small group, relatively speaking? Good for Microsoft and good for consumers sounds like a winning plan to me.
Linux distros have been doing this for years, but it’s only been able to do it because it works for open-source, free software, as opposed to the many different pieces of proprietary software that dot our hard drives.
It is possible, however, if Microsoft push for some kind of “Let us know, and we’ll get you updated” standardized hook for new programs, but it would take forever to get off the ground and become worthwhile.
It really doesn’t have anything to do with being “open-source”. With the exception of Gentoo, all of the Linux distros use binaries for their automated package management update systems. RPM and APT can do source packages, but they don’t distribute them by default because they are larger.
True, it could take 1-3 years to take off in a significant way. They better get started now so that it will be viable when Windows 7 comes out. Just because it will take some time to be worth it doesn’t mean it isn’t worthwhile. Look at how long it took for Apple’s decision to scrap their old OS to reap rewards.
You’re right, it doesn’t need to be open-source (sorry, it always flies out of me when I talk about Linux).
If Microsoft did bring out a widescope updater like that, they can’t just clip it onto Vista (which would be nice) and build it up from there. Vista is already poisoned in a lot of minds, and doing that would make it ‘uncool’. It would have to come out with Windows 7, packaged more as a corporate tool, so everyone gives a fresh eye.
It would fantastic to have, and thinking about it know, I think Microsoft would not be adverse to the idea. It would forward the “Microsoft is all you need” mentality they love to breed in the populace.
Microsoft’s driver certification program (WHQL) doesn’t even work. The program isn’t particularly expensive, but it’s time consuming and a lot of hardware vendors don’t feel like jumping through Microsoft certification hoops each time they want to release a new driver (especially if those releases are to fix urgent problems with previous versions). Software vendors will be that much more resistant, especially the hundreds of vendors of really interesting freeware, making any kind of certification program instituted by Microsoft rather useless. For this reason I think consumers will always have to rely on third party applications for updates. In my view its best to rely on Microsoft exclusively for Microsoft updates and to have a program like RadarSync (which is extremely easy to use) run once a week for everything else.
There is an app for OS X called AppFresh that does a pretty good job. According to the site, it says: “AppFresh is free while under development. We might change the licensing in 1.0 and later releases.”
Who knows what happens with pricing when it goes into full release, but it’s still a pretty cool application. It found updates for applications I forgot I had installed on my machine.
Good suggestion.
But i think even if Microsoft decide to roll-out this feature, they might do it only via Windows Live One Care.
Raddy,
Excellent point about Windows Live Care. I forgot that they might do it that way. Look what that anti-trust suite has done to Microsoft. They have to deliver new compelling features via Live and OneCare instead of being able to offer new ones in the OS; you know like Mac and Linux do.
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