New computer coming.

[Tigger29]

iTunes is HORRIBLE.  Once installed, it wants to take control of your internet connection, but what's even more disturbing is that it does everything in the background without your knowledge.  It's up there with Norton, and is nearly impossible to fully remove from your system.

[cattb]

You can set up another user on your PC, which would be for your bride. As administrator you could install ITunes in her user account and hopefully would not interfer with your other user account (you or admin).  ( I could be all wrong about this to)
If it is preinstalled of course you have to uninstall from your user acount.
Hopefully when you install the OS (which I am guessing it is already installed) there will be some options on the bloatware, wether you want to install or not.

Nice computer and good luck with it.

[guncrasher]

itunes also has a tendency to convert all your songs to itune format and then delete the originals, once that happens, you cant convert them back.

semp

[MrRiplEy[H]]

iTunes is HORRIBLE.  Once installed, it wants to take control of your internet connection, but what's even more disturbing is that it does everything in the background without your knowledge.  It's up there with Norton, and is nearly impossible to fully remove from your system.

iTunes is totally great and transparent when used with a correct operating system.

[RTHolmes]

Once installed, it wants to take control of your internet connection

what does this mean, specifically?

It's up there with Norton, and is nearly impossible to fully remove from your system.

again ive completely removed it numerous times just using Add/Remove Programs.

in fact you can remove the components you dont want individually. dont have an iPod? remove the hardware sync/detection stuff. dont use iTunes sharing? remove bonjour. etc.

itunes also has a tendency to convert all your songs to itune format and then delete the originals, once that happens, you cant convert them back.

only if you tell it too.

[Skuzzy]

iTunes is a very active background process.  It is always talking to the Apple servers.  Like every other program Apple has done for the Windows OS, it runs without any thought given to sharing resources with anything else in the computer.

It is typical of the single threaded design process.  Apple is not the only company who does this.  Valve's Steam is just as bad, if not worse.  If you really want to get a shocker, look at what any Intuit software does to the Windows registry.

[RTHolmes]

thats certainly true, but also true of almost anything you install these days. Roxio, Arcsoft, Acrobat etc. are all terrible in this respect. dont get me started on PCAngel.

thing that bugs me most is almost all of these are update checkers, but why run them all the time as services? The bulk of these updates services would be better run at app startup (or service startup if appropriate).

grrr!

[Skuzzy]

I completely agree with that list as well RT.  Although, there are also some very good apps which are well behaved.  Foxit is certainly a much better behaved app than Acrobat, as one example.  Imgburn is much better than Roxio (well, anything would be better than that software).

Unfortunately, there is not a replacement for iTunes and iTunes is a really nasty network app.

[RTHolmes]

btw you can remove the following using Add/Remove Programs as required:

Apple Mobile Device Support - used for syncing with iPods, iPhones etc
Apple Software Update - junk it and update manually if you dont want the service checking
Bonjour - network thingy used for iTunes sharing between PCs and AppleTV, Airtunes etc.




edit: even the fantastic IMGBurn installs some toolbar nonsense and update checking service unless you disable them

[zack1234]

Can you just stop them in the services list?

[RTHolmes]

yeah theyre all killable individually or with everything else by using FSAutostart (the best way to do it)

if you're never going to use them you could just remove them. personally I have a bunch of stuff running when running my box for general purpose use - 50ish processes, then use FSAutostart to kill all but the 20 processes I need for AH

[Skuzzy]

btw you can remove the following using Add/Remove Programs as required:

Apple Mobile Device Support - used for syncing with iPods, iPhones etc
Apple Software Update - junk it and update manually if you dont want the service checking
Bonjour - network thingy used for iTunes sharing between PCs and AppleTV, Airtunes etc.




edit: even the fantastic IMGBurn installs some toolbar nonsense and update checking service unless you disable them

Imgburn gives you the option to install those things.  At least the last version I installed had options at install time for those extraneous things. 

[Tigger29]

btw you can remove the following using Add/Remove Programs as required:

Apple Mobile Device Support - used for syncing with iPods, iPhones etc
Apple Software Update - junk it and update manually if you dont want the service checking
Bonjour - network thingy used for iTunes sharing between PCs and AppleTV, Airtunes etc.




edit: even the fantastic IMGBurn installs some toolbar nonsense and update checking service unless you disable them

Even if iTunes was completely removed by removing those three pieces of software that get installed with it, then it comes down to "why does iTunes need to be so obtrustive in the first place?"  I mean, not only does it need iTunes itself, but it also needs a separate program to interface with the iPod which shouldn't be necessary, and it needs a THIRD program to share your iTunes with other connections, and then a FOURTH for updating?  That's absolutely ridiculous!

There is no reason whatsoever for a program to need it's own software for updating... just do a check when you open the program!  Networking is already built into windows, as is plug and play device detection (for the iPod).  I have a feeling that a big reason for it being so big is DRM.  You know, software to check things to make sure you're not making illegal copies.

I'm sorry, but I see absolutely no reason for it, and that alone is reason enough for me to never own anything with Apple stamped on it.  I'm not saying there is other software out there that isn't just as bad because bloatware seems to be all the rage these days... but the solution is real simple.  Do your research.  If you don't like it, don't use it.  If you have to have it, find an open source alternative and donate to an individual group of programmers who put their blood and sweat into the software.  (I do that every month with my fee to HiTech)

While there is no 100% alternative to iTunes, there are programs such as MediaMonkey that do about 90% as much.

iTunes is totally great and transparent when used with a correct operating system.

"Great" is a judgment call, and I would never call it that.  "Transparent" may be accurate because all the junk gets done in the background...so much so that you don't really know what all it is doing.  "When used with a correct operating system" I believe you're referring to Apple O/S with that comment, and if you are then you're probably correct.  I have a strong feeling that the Apple version of iTunes is nowhere near as obtrusive as the Microsoft versions.

[Skuzzy]

It is not transparent.  It does interfere with the game connection.  I have dealt with players who had horrid connections that suddenly went golden as soon as they removed iTunes from the computer.

It is not just about bloat either.  Flash, as an example, sends Apple the list of sites you have visited, every 30 days.  If you want to delve about in the registry, you will find those variables, which Apple renames from time to time to help protect them.

Apple is not the only company guilty of this type of information gathering.  It is getting more and more the norm for anything that has anything to do with the Internet.  Microsoft, Google, Intuit, and many others are doing something similar these days.  Then, of course, there is all the ad firms that gather data as well.

People who rant and rave about privacy being invaded, then spend all day on Facebook are a bit laughable.  I digress.

[RTHolmes]

Even if iTunes was completely removed by removing those three pieces of software that get installed with it, then it comes down to "why does iTunes need to be so obtrustive in the first place?"  I mean, not only does it need iTunes itself, but it also needs a separate program to interface with the iPod which shouldn't be necessary, and it needs a THIRD program to share your iTunes with other connections, and then a FOURTH for updating?  That's absolutely ridiculous!

There is no reason whatsoever for a program to need it's own software for updating... just do a check when you open the program!  Networking is already built into windows, as is plug and play device detection (for the iPod).  I have a feeling that a big reason for it being so big is DRM.  You know, software to check things to make sure you're not making illegal copies

well its modular for a few reasons. one is because each individual install is used by other apple software, so if you use other apps from apple you arent duplicating components (saving bandwidth, RAM, CPU usage, disk usage etc).

updates as a service are probably a good idea for apps that run as a service (not all users reboot once a day).

WINS/NETBIOS is built into windows, but lacks some of the functionality that bonjour provides. its also far from perfect.

plug and play ... very far from perfect.

good thing is you can just uninstall the functionality you dont want


as for the apple/DRM , that would make an interesting thread