Comments on: OS X Software Update Gives You Only Inconvenient Choices http://blog.purevisibility.com/2008/07/osx-software-update-gives-you-only-inconvenient-choices/ Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:00:30 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Mike Beasley http://blog.purevisibility.com/2008/07/osx-software-update-gives-you-only-inconvenient-choices/comment-page-1/#comment-656 Mike Beasley Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:49:08 +0000 http://blog.purevisibility.com/?p=197#comment-656 Regarding your second paragraph: Thank you - that's really helpful. If they made this functionality a bit more explicit, then the problem I write about is solved. Long-term, it would be great if Software Update could handle more responsibilities. Regarding your second paragraph: Thank you – that’s really helpful. If they made this functionality a bit more explicit, then the problem I write about is solved.

Long-term, it would be great if Software Update could handle more responsibilities.

]]> By: Trek Glowacki http://blog.purevisibility.com/2008/07/osx-software-update-gives-you-only-inconvenient-choices/comment-page-1/#comment-655 Trek Glowacki Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:54:08 +0000 http://blog.purevisibility.com/?p=197#comment-655 Under Leopard "important" updates can be set to download and install automatically (http://www.flickr.com/photos/thetrek/2688807339/). That's probably what caused the message that some updates had been installed magically. Other updates that require a restart that apple doesn't consider "important" can be installed using software update and when it asks you to restart, just quit software update. They'll take effect whenever you next restart your mac (which can lead to some humorous confusion if, like me, you only restart once in a great while). The larger problem here is that Apple has yet to open up software update to third party developers. Most are using the sparkle framework these days (http://sparkle.andymatuschak.org/) but it works on a per-app basis. Couple this with Firefox and other mozilla apps (which uses their own updater and a separate updater for addons) and it's really easy to end up in multiupdate hell: launching and relaunching apps and systems. Under Leopard “important” updates can be set to download and install automatically (http://www.flickr.com/photos/thetrek/2688807339/). That’s probably what caused the message that some updates had been installed magically.

Other updates that require a restart that apple doesn’t consider “important” can be installed using software update and when it asks you to restart, just quit software update. They’ll take effect whenever you next restart your mac (which can lead to some humorous confusion if, like me, you only restart once in a great while).

The larger problem here is that Apple has yet to open up software update to third party developers. Most are using the sparkle framework these days (http://sparkle.andymatuschak.org/) but it works on a per-app basis. Couple this with Firefox and other mozilla apps (which uses their own updater and a separate updater for addons) and it’s really easy to end up in multiupdate hell: launching and relaunching apps and systems.

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