March 23, 1998
Software vendors need to provide a full disclosure
By Bob O'Donnell
All I want is a little information. You wouldn't think that would be too much to ask --
particularly in our information-saturated society -- but based on the way today's
operating systems, utility programs, and software applications work, it apparently is and
I don't understand why.
The problem boils down to this: while you're installing, operating or removing software
from your computer, the programs involved provide virtually no information about what
they're actually doing to your system. It's as if they work under the principle of
"what you don't know can't hurt you." I don't know about you, but I find this
completely unacceptable, particularly because what they tend to do "unobtrusively in
the background" more than likely can and will hurt you somewhere down the road.
For example, installation programs rarely (if ever) tell you what they're installing
where. Instead, they give you flashy screens touting the program's features. Frankly, I
don't mind looking at some of those screens (although on really fast computers they're
often gone so quickly that they're pointless), but that doesn't mean I shouldn't get a
detailed log of exactly what was installed, and where and when the process is done. That's
the very least that any application should provide.
In some situations, applications should provide even more, particularly if they install
a component that runs in the background. What we get, however, is generally absolutely
nothing. My guess is some companies are so embarrassed by the hodge-podge of crap that
constitutes an application these days that they're unwilling to let anyone in on what's
really being installed.
Similarly, when applications are uninstalled, I expect a full report of what was really
moved and what files and registry entries (if any) still remain. What I often get,
however, is a message along the lines of "Some components of the application could
not be removed." What I want to know is what wasn't removed and, more importantly,
why the heck wasn't it? If an application can install something somewhere, then I can see
no good reason why it can't remove it too. That's just p-poor programming in my book.
Also, when operating system tools or third-party utilities are doing something in the
background, why don't I get a simple message that explains what they're doing and why? I
don't need the gory details, just enough information to let me know what's happening on my
computer.
It's not like software companies are incapable of providing detailed information on
relevant subjects. Have you looked at any license agreements lately? They take three or
four pages to tell you that you're allowed to use and install the software you just bought
on one computer (and maybe another one at home). Nobody reads or cares about the stupid
license agreements anyway, so why do they bother spending all the time and effort drafting
those? (Yes, I know there are important legal reasons why they have to, but I'm speaking
from a pragmatic user's point of view.)
If companies spent a little time putting together a three or four-page document that
tells me exactly what they just installed where, for example, including any files they may
have overwritten or deleted in the process, I'd be much more interested in reading that.
And don't feed me any lines about how it might be too confusing for inexperienced users.
If a company can't explain in a few sentences of plain English what its application is
doing and why, then I have to wonder how capable it is of writing applications or
utilities that do anything with our data.
I'm not expecting any miraculous changes to occur overnight, but I do think it's time
to start demanding a full disclosure on exactly what applications are doing when they're
installed, when they're removed and, if appropriate, while they're running. Just as we
expect doctors and other professionals who perform services for us to tell us what it is
they are doing and why, so too should we expect software vendors, whose programs directly
impact the increasingly important computer data with which we surround ourselves, be
responsible for their actions. After all, we all have a right to know.
©
Copyright 1998, by InfoWorld Publishing Corp., a
subsidiary of IDG Communications, Inc. Reprinted from InfoWorld,
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