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more on A tip for IP users Apple's "iTunes" mess
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2005 18:25:31 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Marc <marcaniballi () hotmail com> Date: September 10, 2005 4:40:54 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: RE: [IP] Apple's "iTunes" mess Dave; A tip for IP users, if you think appropriate. Back in the days of Windows NT Pro and all those lovely service pack"issues," I installed a little known utility called "Go Back" which allowed you to return to a previous "state" of your system. Say for example, having installed iTunes 5 and found your system completely bollocksed, you reboot, select the Go Back boot menu and tell it to revert to the system settings of
say 1 hour ago. This not only reverts all file changes, but also revertsregistry and other settings changes, while (generally) leaving data files
untouched.For people concerned about questionable upgrades, or who try a lot of beta
software (guilty!), it is an indispensable tool! I personally run an old version of Quicktime because I tried iTunes and hated its invasiveness - After installing it one day, I "Go Back'ed" andstuck with my original version. I'm sure one day it will no longer work with "current" .mov files, but if the situation doesn't improve, I don't suspect
there will be a lot of .mov files out there anyway.To summarise, Go Back (by Symantec, now) is a little utility well worth the
$20 or so it costs!This is obviously only valuable to Windows platform users; I apologise for not giving equal time to Mac users, but I'm sure there is a similar tool for Macs - then again, one can hope that iTunes (at least!) isn't a problem on
OSX! Marc -----Original Message----- From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net] Sent: Saturday, September 10, 2005 4:19 PM To: Ip Ip Subject: [IP] Apple's "iTunes" mess Begin forwarded message: From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com> Date: September 10, 2005 2:28:07 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Cc: lauren () vortex com Subject: Apple's "iTunes" mess Dave, Users of Apple's iTunes and/or QuickTime on Windows might wish to take note: Maybe it's a plot to get Windows users to buy Macs (OK, just kidding), or maybe it's a Mac-centric QC department, but Apple is really taking it on the chin regarding their newly-released Windows version 5 iTunes. This is bundled with their new version 7 QuickTime -- in fact, this bundle has become the standard QuickTime download as well. Even more problems appear to have possibly resulted from the complicated DRM environment and the inclusion of a complex LAN-related utility in the release. A brief look at the discussions over at the Apple Forums: http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?14@787.O9RaaW1FRjC.0@.68a505a5 gives a taste of the frustration, not only by users who don't have working iTunes anymore, but also by many who now have broken QuickTime installations, and in some cases major OS problems as well. What's worse, rolling back can be difficult or impossible, and Apple's lack of official recognition or public response regarding these problems is driving many users up the wall. I've personally now seen two systems that have fallen into this black hole -- no working iTunes, no working QuickTime, and attempts to install older versions (even just of QuickTime) fail miserably, even after complex (and in some cases dangerous) attempts at cleaning out the leftover muck. It's really a mess -- reminds me of early DOS days. It's apparently a somewhat bizarre measure of Apple's success that people are so fired up over this situation, and of course the related impacts on their ability to feed materials into their expensive iPods and other devices. This obviously isn't a life and death situation. But for a company with such a finely tuned PR machine as Apple, it should be a reminder that basic issues are important -- like making sure that major software releases are properly tested, and at the very least can be easily and completely deinstalled if there's trouble. To fail these fundamental tests threatens the rapid loss of consumer good will that may have taken many years to establish. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein lauren () pfir org or lauren () vortex com or lauren () eepi org Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 http://www.pfir.org/lauren Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org Co-Founder, EEPI - Electronic Entertainment Policy Initiative - http://www.eepi.org Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as marcaniballi () hotmail com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ipArchives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting- people/
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