mac_girl
2007.06.15, 06:05 PM
Hi,
What do you guys think of a 'self updater' feature?
This is what I think from my own experience as a user and reading posts on various download sites and well mainly from other sites.
pros: Safer for the user (ideally they'd get the updates and fixes). Less work for the user. Seems more professional. I could integrate it with my reg. system to weed out illegal copies. Also it would let me know truly how many people out there are using my program.
cons: some users might not appreciate it and think that my app is 'calling home' and that I'm spying on them maliciously or something. More work for me. More server bandwidth used (aka $) although ideally every user would either self update or manually update anyways I guess now that i think about it.
I'm mainly thinking that it's a good thing. I personally like when programs that I use have a Check for Updates button or something and then just magically do it all for me.
But, I've seen some people on certain sites really complain about programs that 'call home' and think they are being robbed of CPU resources and possibly being misused by it. I even once watched some MacBreak (i think it was that...i don't watch that show anymore) and they featured some program called Little Snitch or something and how 'ingenious' it was and helpful *rolls eyes* and how they were amazed at home many programs were being sneaky and calling home! *oh noes!* Which I think is ridiculous because all it is doing is basically being a firewall logger minus the firewall...
So, as it stands now I made a semi working 'download a file from a web site' puzzle piece (I call all my 'prototypes' puzzle pieces :) ) that i could convert to a working:
- possibly start a helper app?
- download a file from a web site
- compare version number with app's version number
- download file if needed
- close the app
- overwrite the old app with the new app
or something along those lines but also I guess i'd have to add the feature to turn OFF self updates...to make it manual updates..or to check everytime N happens, etc.
Anyways, I was just wondering what some people that have actually released stuff thinks about self updates and if it's worth it or not, thanks :) (also, I should be reading my Flash book but i think i got ADD)
What do you guys think of a 'self updater' feature?
This is what I think from my own experience as a user and reading posts on various download sites and well mainly from other sites.
pros: Safer for the user (ideally they'd get the updates and fixes). Less work for the user. Seems more professional. I could integrate it with my reg. system to weed out illegal copies. Also it would let me know truly how many people out there are using my program.
cons: some users might not appreciate it and think that my app is 'calling home' and that I'm spying on them maliciously or something. More work for me. More server bandwidth used (aka $) although ideally every user would either self update or manually update anyways I guess now that i think about it.
I'm mainly thinking that it's a good thing. I personally like when programs that I use have a Check for Updates button or something and then just magically do it all for me.
But, I've seen some people on certain sites really complain about programs that 'call home' and think they are being robbed of CPU resources and possibly being misused by it. I even once watched some MacBreak (i think it was that...i don't watch that show anymore) and they featured some program called Little Snitch or something and how 'ingenious' it was and helpful *rolls eyes* and how they were amazed at home many programs were being sneaky and calling home! *oh noes!* Which I think is ridiculous because all it is doing is basically being a firewall logger minus the firewall...
So, as it stands now I made a semi working 'download a file from a web site' puzzle piece (I call all my 'prototypes' puzzle pieces :) ) that i could convert to a working:
- possibly start a helper app?
- download a file from a web site
- compare version number with app's version number
- download file if needed
- close the app
- overwrite the old app with the new app
or something along those lines but also I guess i'd have to add the feature to turn OFF self updates...to make it manual updates..or to check everytime N happens, etc.
Anyways, I was just wondering what some people that have actually released stuff thinks about self updates and if it's worth it or not, thanks :) (also, I should be reading my Flash book but i think i got ADD)