Simon Willison’s Weblog

Don’t make me lie to you

7th May 2004

So what’s the deal with this?

I’m sure you’ve seen it. I get it from QuickTime on Windows, and I get it from QuickTime on my Mac as well. If this was attached to some lousy spyware infested privacy flaunting piece of junk I wouldn’t be so surprised, but it’s not: it’s from Apple, a company who are meant to pride themselves on the usability of their software; software that normally just gets out of the way. So why bug me with this junk? More importantly, why force me to lie about my intentions? I have absolutely no intention of ever upgrading to QuickTime Pro—but every time that blasted window comes up I have to promise to put off my purchasing decision until “Later” in order to proceed.

It annoys me even more because out of all the lousy streaming media formats out there, QuickTime sucks the least. Why spoil the experience with an advert for a product that seems to be made obsolete by Apple’s own iMovie anyway?