Even though I risk what little page rank my poor server has, I thought I'd spread the word anyway. I usually love Google and their products, however the new Google Pack might be a step in the wrong direction. Here's a list of the evil that is included, ordered by disputable evil-ness:
- Google Desktop
- this is a marginally evil one. Depending on your hardware, it could slow down your computer significantly (for example, a slower computer with a small C drive and a large D drive filled with lots of indexable stuff, the metadata generated by the index will fill up the rest of the C drive). It has also had some security issues in the past, but who hasn't?
- Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar
- I love my Firefox, but I can no longer seem to turn off my Google Toolbar :-(
- Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition
- This one is just a 6-month trial. There are at least 2 non-evil apps: AntiVir Personal Edition and AVG Free Edition
- Adobe Reader 7
- I hate PDFs. (I'm not the only one) A less-evil approach would be to include some non-Adobe/open source/freeware PDF reader (like Foxit and/or PDFCreator), but the only non-evil approach would be to not include anything and leave PDFs the F alone.
- Real Player
- C'mon, Real Player? What a POS! The only non-evil option for this one IMHO is the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack
Ah well, there are many other apps included that make it worth a download (Google Earth, Trillian, et al). Also, if anyone wants to try out MSN's new beta Messenger let me know, I have one invite remaining.
Update: it looks like I'm not the only one here either.