Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare - Gizmodo Comments

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

eblingmis — Sat, 03 May 2008 16:51:33 EDT

I use it :) I find the way it renders text easier to read given my less than perfect vision...

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Leonard Nimrod — Fri, 02 May 2008 21:42:16 EDT

@Krutch: I love QT on Mac but hate it on Windows.

@StarChaser Tyger: But you aren't forced. It's a check box like all the other installs that "recommend" apps but pre-check the box. Once installed it won't auto-launch and run in the background so it's not malware.

I just think to much is being made out of this. I don't like that Apple pre-checked the box, but I don't like when all the other installed do it either. I just think we need to look at it objectively.

Leonard Nimrod

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

StarChaser Tyger — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:21:52 EDT

@Leonard Nimrod:
You keep saying that... I've seen lots that try and give you google's toolbar, but I have yet to see one that tries to force you to download Firefox. Name one?

StarChaser Tyger

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Krutch — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:06:11 EDT

@ggore: ROFL Safari is one of the LEAST standard-capable browsers. Opera has everyone beat. Sorry do your research Safari for Windows is one of the worst browsers.

As said before Windows puts IE packaged just as Apple does with Safari. Stop using that stupid argument it doesn't work in this situation, it has nothing to do with Apple tricking us into downloading their crapware. (You're downright retarded if you think Windows should come prepackaged with every browser from every company.. sorry but Microsoft pays to make the OS, go make your own fruity OS)

Like I said before, I would rather a browser and other basic programs come pre-installed or we wouldn't be able to download the others for free. I know you filthy rich Apple users don't mind wasting your money on garbage but some of us Windows/Linux users would like more freedom and less cost.

Krutch

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

tarzan69 — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:22:41 EDT

@Jurisprudence:
Umm the stats here don'e reflect installed base, they reflect number of active users. they measure hits on a supposedly random selection of websites and thats where the figures come from. so they have tripled their active user share, which is more significant than installed base figures.
after all you only get mindshare from active users . . . .

tarzan69

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

my favorite car is a motorcycle — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:07:04 EDT

Looks like a graph of any phishware/malware adoption rate.

This proves that a significant percentage of Windows users are trained to automatically update constantly, even when they have no idea what they're installing or why. Then some of these idiots bitch & moan that their machines have loads of crapware on them, and it's somebody else's fault.

Human behaviour can be so comical.

my favorite car is a motorcycle

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

berribrand — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:34:52 EDT

This Safari shenanigan is pretty lousy if you ask me. Giving Steve Jobs repeated spankings over this would be a mild punishment for this kind of software intrusion. I may just disable the updater service as well, like an above poster mentioned. I hate the whole iPhone component that gets installed as well. The whole iTunes package is turning into bloatware now, if not already.

berribrand

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Guy-Fawkes — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:04:49 EDT

I tried Safari before the "forced update" tactics. Hadn't decided whether to keep it or not, and then Apple tried to force it down the throats of the techno-ignorant.

Apple software of any kind is not welcome here now (except osx86, which is technically not really Apple). We just banned iPods on the Corporate computers, too.

Bad move, Apple.

Guy-Fawkes

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

AmbroseP — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:40:37 EDT

I made the graph less stupid.
[img293.imageshack.us]

AmbroseP

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Jasontrainer — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:36:10 EDT

I was definitely mildly surprised at apple for the update with the safari app prechecked. UT Since i am so used to deselecting the install google toolbar everytime I update my Java I was totally prepared to uncheck that box baby. Screw you Safari you will not be infiltrating my PC.

Jasontrainer

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Chester_Copperpot — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:33:18 EDT

@dOk: Can I have an example of the sites you're talking about, my Mac has never locked up.

Chester_Copperpot

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Toto — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:36:13 EDT

Stealth update - Immediate uninstall.

Not interested thanks.

Lets wait for the European anti-trust lawsuit...

Toto

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

axiomatic — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:30:09 EDT

Just because it was installed does not mean its being used as the primary browser.

I have since STOPPED the Apple updater service to do automated checkups because of this douchebaggery.

Way to make your updater service irrelevant there Apple.

axiomatic

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Zenshai — Fri, 02 May 2008 10:27:55 EDT

@GoodBytes: That video was pure win.

Zenshai

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

asten77 — Fri, 02 May 2008 10:16:25 EDT

I'm amused that the only unit of scale on the graph is "0%". Is 0.1% the next one, and still off the chart?

asten77

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Joseph — Fri, 02 May 2008 08:51:03 EDT

That chart shows exactly how spyware/malware is supposed to work... it grows virally a.k.a. Safari Virus for Windows.

Joseph

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Joseph — Fri, 02 May 2008 08:40:41 EDT

@discounteggroll: I agree, I'm really becoming a Firefox hater on OSX. It can't render pages that even IE7 gets right on windows (which is sad). And version 3 is no better, I've already submitted 3 bugs to the Mozilla bug team--if they don't fix em, I'm gonna go back to Safari.

Joseph

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

metalhaze — Fri, 02 May 2008 08:35:59 EDT

1. Pop open Safari

2. Click "Private Browsing"

3. Surf the porn really fast with no fear of anything exploiting your browser because no one uses Safari.

4.Finish the job

5. Close Safari

Man I love this browser. Oh and I use it on a daily basis for other stuff too. ;-)

metalhaze

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

bms — Fri, 02 May 2008 08:30:54 EDT

Totally fluffed numbers.

bms

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Sleeper_Service — Fri, 02 May 2008 08:21:37 EDT

So the actual figures are an increase from 0.07% to 0.21% of Windows users.

Tripled sounds better though, doesn't it?

Sleeper_Service

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

clevin — Fri, 02 May 2008 08:11:57 EDT

@Leonard Nimrod: don't use your apple standard to guess mozilla.

Take a look, firefox 3's awesomebar, adblock+ are all google avoiders, they put users first, not like your apple style, always put $$$ first.

Sneaky thoughts stay away.

clevin

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Posavoie — Fri, 02 May 2008 07:58:08 EDT

Stupid Apple update made me download Safari... now every 2 days Apple asks me to update it (they manage to be more annoying than the Microsoft updates, and that's saying something!)

Posavoie

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

frigg — Fri, 02 May 2008 06:53:26 EDT

I use Safari and Firefox. It's like having a mommy browser and a daddy browser. They each have their own particular role.

frigg

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

ggore — Fri, 02 May 2008 06:37:35 EDT

These stastics were taken from ISP and website reports, which indicate that Safari was installed and is actually being USED by this amount of people. Interesting, we'll see if it holds up.

Like a previous poster said, Safari is the most standards-capable browser out there right now. I tried the Acid Test with Webkit and like he said, it got a perfect score. It's very fast at rendering pages as well. Plugins and extensions are nice, but are also places to harbor bad things if you aren't careful. Personally I haven't found any of them useful and serve no purpose other than slowing down the browser.

And on my Windows machine, I do NOT need Google Toolbar, Yahoo Toolbar, or any of the other crap that comes with what seems to be a vast majority of Windows software these days. This has been going on for ages, and yet these people bitching about Safari don't seem to mind Windows doing it. Interesting.

ggore

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

discounteggroll — Fri, 02 May 2008 06:12:09 EDT

fryerfox is one of the most unstable apps I have ever used with OSX. That being said, I could not see myself switching to safari anytime soon. I've definitely become dependent on greasemonkey scripts, foxmarks and the ability to customize most everything about it.

I am constantly going between my MBP and HTPC (and at times my gaming desktop and UMPC Vaio), so having the exact look, bookmarks and quicklinks synced without any attention is great. I can live with a few force quits a day. Plus it just looks so sexy!

[img218.imageshack.us]

discounteggroll

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Rususeruru — Fri, 02 May 2008 06:02:49 EDT

@92BuickLeSabre: You should try to get her to run Camino from Mozilla, I actually prefer it over FF in the Mac environment. Sure it's not as customizable but it seems to be more responsive, but that's just me.

@Saeid: Your claim is entirely platform dependent sir. I have a hard time that Safari is the fastest browser for Windows (I personally haven't tried it since the initial buggy release) and given it doesn't even exist for Linux well...

Rususeruru

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

aussie — Fri, 02 May 2008 05:40:45 EDT

What's the problem, Internet Explorer is pre-installed! Safari is actually a really good browser anyway, It's far snappier than Internet Explorer.

Adobe is the worst offender when it comes to this sort of crap!

aussie

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Dearhaw — Fri, 02 May 2008 05:35:43 EDT

All right! Another chance for everybody to go hate on Apple, weeks after they changed the behavior of the updater software! Hooray!

@antitrust311:

That is seriously cool, thanks for letting me know.

Disclaimer: I'm primarily a Mac user, but I use Safari and Firefox side-by-side; I, too, though Apple was a little slimy with that tactic, but I see no reason why people should have gone bonkers over it when so many other major companies (Adobe, Yahoo, Google, not to mention MS) use similar/same/worse tactics.

Dearhaw

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Sleeper_Service — Fri, 02 May 2008 04:34:56 EDT

So Apple have had a month of spamming people who have iTunes on their PCs and their browser share has gone from virtually nothing to hardly anything whilst simultaneously tarnishing their reputation.

Good job, guys!

Sleeper_Service

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

pharago — Fri, 02 May 2008 04:06:14 EDT

letmesee... 3 x 0 = 0 ...bummer

pharago

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Krutch — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:38:34 EDT

@Leonard Nimrod: That and it keeps making useless icons every time. It drives me insane, but I do love QT otherwise.

Krutch

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

skilled1 — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:29:31 EDT

bullsh*t to their methods. can only be described with one word.

SLEASEBALL

/topic

skilled1

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

BigDaddyM — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:13:13 EDT

and I still do not use Safari.
M

BigDaddyM

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Leonard Nimrod — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:50:11 EDT

@Krutch: If you installed it you choose to install it. Nothing is done automatically. Just like when you install other software and they suggest other software, including Firefox, by pre-checking the box and having you check Next or Install. The same thing. Just like any other non-malware app it doesn't autostart or run background processes. The only harm it does is take up about 18MB of HDD space.

If there is anything to complain about it's QT auto-starting after updates, even though you've set all the preferences.

Leonard Nimrod

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

snitch29 — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:49:33 EDT

Well believe it or not some people have never even heard of another browser other than IE, so if Safari got install without them really knowing it's a browser they might start using it thinking it came with there ipod & it must be something good

snitch29

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

legacye — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:39:41 EDT

I was in love with Safari 3 the first few weeks after it came out - it was at least 30% faster than either FF or Opera.

The sluggishness due to all those flash adverts (which FireFox blocks) unfortunately meant that some of my pages crashed so now I'm back to the ol' tried and trusted. I also think Safari seriously needs some basic add on capabilities. IE has IEPlus, FF has it's add-on support and so does Opera.

Wanna make it a serious competitor, Apple? Give us expansion capabilities!

legacye

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

tidybowl — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:20:12 EDT

Actually, it's not a 'forced' addition - you can choose to uncheck it from the Apple Update install box.

And while I'm an Apple fan - this move just sucked. It's straight out of the Microsoft Playbook.

As for Real Networks - I wouldn't know, I don't use any of their stuff.

tidybowl

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Nintenboy01 — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:01:48 EDT

@notnb: Well, in iTune's case it really HAS to be bundled with Quicktime since it uses the QT framework as its backbone. Not all PCs have QT already installed, and average folks probably can't be bothered to d/l them seperately.

Nintenboy01

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

snitch29 — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:55:34 EDT

Safari is a great web browser, but apple needs to add some lipstick to it like Firefox did with it's latest beta version cause although Safari is great, it feels kind of old

snitch29

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

antitrust311 — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:44:20 EDT

Well I personally use webkit on my Mac. The last nigthly build that I checked on Acid Test 3 scored a 100%. IE, Firefox, Camino, Opera etc... can't come anywhere close to that so why are you all crying about Safari. Proper Web standard support is more important than Firefox extensions IMHO.

antitrust311

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Paradise — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:38:50 EDT

@XanderCrews: Boosh.

Paradise

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Saeid — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:30:37 EDT

I definitely recommend Safari over anything else. It is by far the most elegant, clutter free and fastest browser.

Saeid

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

TVGenius — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:28:19 EDT

@Tony C: ... and judging by the numbers, they didn't.

What beefed me about it was that it didn't give you the option of a desktop icon or if it added itself to the Quick Launch bar. It just stuffed itself in there. I was almost expecting it to make itself default too.

TVGenius

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Krutch — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:27:44 EDT

If I wanted a piece of crap buggy browser from apple I would have installed it myself. I don't need that scumbag Steve sneaking his garbage on my PC. Thankfully I was born with half a brain and I never got the crap. Now I refuse to use any Apple software for this retarded stunt.

@Leonard Nimrod: oh excuse me I didn't know a simple addon toolbar was JUST LIKE AN ENTIRE BROWSER! Also if Microsoft didn't put IE in with windows HOW THE HELL DID YOU INSTALL FIREFOX/OPERA/WHATEVER!? You want everyone to go out and buy the cd's? no thank you. I appreciate windows giving us at least the BASIC software we need to get by with the OS.

Also I think its fair game for the company making an OS to put whatever they want in it, they made it, not you. Apple bundles software with their OS. I haven't heard one person bitch about that.. AND THEY SHOULDN'T.

Krutch

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

roflwaffles — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:15:32 EDT

so judging by the graph its .15 ish now?
hell netscape has more than that.

roflwaffles

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Leonard Nimrod — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:01:10 EDT

It's not like Firefox or Google Toolbar isn't pre-checked on many many different installers.

Mozilla is upset because any Safari share taked revenue from them.

Leonard Nimrod

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Drvec — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:57:17 EDT

Does "market share" in this case mean the install base (i.e. people who accidentally installed it) or is it based on web traffic (i.e. how many people actually use it)?

Drvec

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Monty — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:45:40 EDT

Apple can sneak it on to every computer in the world.. It still will not change the fact that it sucks.

Monty

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

MrBlahBlah — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:06:02 EDT

sneaky apple, very sneaky.

MrBlahBlah

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

James — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:04:01 EDT

@BaseVilliN: Yes, this graph is useless.

James

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

James — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:02:37 EDT

IE is install ON every windows (US) computer, but its market share isn't exactly 100%.

So, a huge spike to where exactly? Please, depending on the graph, even a "spike" to 0.08 from 0.07 can look amazing. And "installed on" vs "used" is a COMPLETELY different thing. Is that "market share"?

James

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

notnb — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:47:32 EDT

I'm still pissed about QT being bundled with iTunes...then this crap.

notnb

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

phryed — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:42:28 EDT

@XanderCrews: Aha! thank you, XC. for some reason i never noticed there were actually menus up there.

phryed

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

LJKelley — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:41:12 EDT

As a web developer I have all four browsers installed on my computer. But I do think my biggest pet peeve about the internet is bundling like Yahoo Toolbar with Flash etc... Its deceptive and rude as most users just click install thinking they are install what they downloaded and not 100 other objects that can slow down a computer. Yes so when I help speed up Windows for my friends I'm like "Did you install Yahoo Toolbar since my last checkup?" and they are like no. I'm always uninstall a million things and yes they should check (as I do) but it is extremely underhanded and makes me think less of these companies.

LJKelley

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

BaseVilliN — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:40:01 EDT

I love that graph. It goes from 0% to...

BaseVilliN

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

kenyonk — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:39:14 EDT

Don't they generally measure browser market share based on actual traffic logs? Wouldn't that mean that it wouldn't increase simply by being installed but that people are actually using it?

Not saying Apple wasn't out of line with the stealth install, but it could be interesting to see which direction the market share heads after this.

kenyonk

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

XanderCrews — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:22:35 EDT

@phryed: Just go to tools on the updater and select ignore.

This type of tactic turns me off to the product. Same goes for web pages that use the Firefox required scheme. I would be more open to the idea if it wasn't being imposed on me.

That said, if anyone knows a workaroud to make FF favorites searchable through Vista Desktop Search, I'd love to know the trick.

XanderCrews

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Rob C — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:14:25 EDT

There's just nothing in it that makes it worth switching from firefox to.

Rob C

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

phryed — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:09:48 EDT

This Sucks! i love itunes, and want the updates, but i DO NOT want to install safari, and it keeps bugging me about it every other day, and i do not know how to make it stop. damn you safari! i still love you itunes.

phryed

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

jibbly — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:09:12 EDT

Ugh, I got rid of Safari even after trying to tweak it to play nice. Firefox wins out every time.

jibbly

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Groggy Banana — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:03:54 EDT

@jakeyjohn1: Be warned that armpit sucking may not be a necessarily bad thing: [www.femalefirst.co.uk]
As for people who use pc itunes, they should stop right now. It's just not worth it. Not even for coverflow.

Safari isn't so bad and it's good to have all popular browsers for web development...just to make life more crappy and tedious.

Groggy Banana

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

clevin — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:00:26 EDT

fanboys gizmodo failed to mention safari's whole marketshare dropped 0.5%, OSX dropped 0.5% as well, firefox dropped 1%

and guess what, IE6 gained 1%, IE7 gained 0.2%

Total BS

clevin

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Hamburger-helper — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:58:31 EDT

well hey at least it has that cool little blue scroll bar thing

Hamburger-helper

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

jakeyjohn1 — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:49:32 EDT

That whole thing apple did sucks armpits I didn't download it and never will, too bad most people who use itunes don't even look at those prompts they just click next

jakeyjohn1

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Tony C — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:43:32 EDT

Sure, Apple "stealth" installed Safari on a whole bunch of Windows Apple Update users, but that doesn't mean that they actually had to launch Safari and use it for web browsing...

Tony C

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Groggy Banana — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:41:49 EDT

Isn't this kind of, sort of what Microsoft had done with IE. You know...when Netscape was around.

Groggy Banana

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

GoodBytes — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:37:04 EDT

I use Firefox 3 Beta 5. Despite it's Beta software bugs, I love it more then Firefox 2. Specially under Vista, as it can (with this: ) take advantage of the Aero, which is amazing. Moreover, just it's new features and faster surfing makes it also impressive. I can't wait for the final (that is if the final has all the bugs and issues resolved of course). Thanks to UAC under Vista, I never got the update thingy that Apple tried to do.
On release of Safari I did try it, and all I can say is I think Big Rig the game

is better than this browser (anyway on the PC).

GoodBytes

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Jurisprudence — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:34:53 EDT

Staying Opera on both my MBP and pc. Use Safari on the MBP as little as possible. Just because Apple have a tripling of installed user-base does not mean a tripling of users actually using the software. I certainly don't want Safari on my pc (no more than I want IE on it) and tactics like this simply make Apple and Safari a target for retribution. Firefox on both machines as well but at least I freely downloaded that without the use of any disreputable tactics involved. Steve, your making a name for yourself in the pc browser market but its not a good long-term strategic or security move for Apple's customers, myself included.

Jurisprudence

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Leonard Nimrod — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:30:44 EDT

There are many installers that pre-check FireFox and Google Toolbar, etc. And let snot even get into how MS has put all version os IE onto Windows. This is no different, Apple even changed their installer app to include a secondary section for new apps so it's pretty obvious now.

Leonard Nimrod

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

TurboFool — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:26:43 EDT

I've seen Safari on quite a few client PCs since this forced deployment started. It's clearly "working," but whether or not the people who have it are even noticing it's there is another story.

I can see why Mozilla's so upset, though. It's hard enough to get people to switch off of the web browser that comes with Windows. Now imagine someone finally realizes there could be a reason to try something else. Do they download Firefox, or do they try the other browser that's already on their computers and came from the people who made their beloved iTunes? It's just short of what had everyone up in arms that MS was building IE into Windows.

TurboFool

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Weihovah — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:22:37 EDT

any actual numbers? triple could mean 300% of 100 people

Weihovah

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

OMG! Ponies! — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:21:39 EDT

@Mandatory_Field: I'm with you.

RealNetworks tactics have always been and always will be computer douchebaggery.

I'm a Safari man on my MacBook because Moz can't come out with a stable release for Leopard (ie - one that doesn't crash thrice daily); for XP though, it's Firefox all the way. It's far more extensible.

And bait-and-switch is a good way to get me to swear off a product out of principle.

OMG! Ponies!

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

92BuickLeSabre — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:18:06 EDT

When we used a PC, I used Firefox; my wife used IE.
When we got a Mac I figured, okay, she's going to have to use a new browser, maybe I can convince her to use Firefox.

She immediately started using Safari.

I really think she's doing it just to irritate me.

92BuickLeSabre

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

lastgene — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:17:27 EDT

Well, I must confess I was one of the fools that fell for that one, I've used it 3 times since I download it, and I do not love it. I will uninstall it soon.

lastgene

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

man in gauze is king ramses II, actually — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:13:22 EDT

Yeah, I saw that. This is even more despicable than Microsoft inflating the number of Vista adopters by counting XP purchases as downgraded copies of Vista. I guess MS wins this one.

I uninstalled Apple Software update, anyway. I don't need to install something for half an hour, reboot my computer, and change all my shortcuts just so that they can improve iFone support on iTunes or something useless like that.

man in gauze is king ramses II, actually

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

dOk — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:12:22 EDT

I actually DL'ed it because i wanted to try it out.

I still use Firefox as my main browser and Safari still locks up on some sites just like it does on a Mac.

dOk

Stealth Safari Update for Windows Was Super Effective, Tripled Marketshare

Mandatory_Field — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:10:41 EDT

I think there will be an inevitable backlash to the RealNetworks-type tactics. That move was much closer to the "sleazy" than to the "brilliant marketing" end of the scale.

Mandatory_Field