Automatic updates using AppFresh
I'm surprised that Mac OS X's Software Update application isn't as feature-filled as, say, Debian's APT. Of course, it's slightly better than Microsoft Update or the "integrated" Windows Update tool in Vista, but not by far. (What's up with using a website to automatically deliver and install system-critical updates, anyway? The web browser, no matter how trusted the site, shouldn't have the ability to make such changes.)
One thing that I love about APT is that updating all the software packages you've installed through APT is as simple as apt-get update and apt-get upgrade. This is easily presented to end-users through a GUI such as the Synaptic Package Manager provided with Ubuntu. (Of course, there is also software like yum which runs on other Linux distributions, but I'm not as familiar with it.) The real strength of such a package management system, however, is that new applications can be easily added and maintained to this system.
I recently discovered a program for OS X called AppFresh, which partially replicates the features of APT. Basically, it queries your system to determine which software is installed, and then uses iusethis.com to check if any updates are available. It also integrates a bunch of tools to add programs to iusethis, as well as add existing programs to your iusethis profile. Pretty cool.
However, I think that a better solution would be for system services such as Software Update to allow programs to register a feed of some sort which can be polled for program updates, thereby allowing all software to use a single service to notify the user of available updates, and/or install them automatically. Perhaps I'm not seeing the big picture, however, and this creates some sort of security issue.
One thing that I love about APT is that updating all the software packages you've installed through APT is as simple as apt-get update and apt-get upgrade. This is easily presented to end-users through a GUI such as the Synaptic Package Manager provided with Ubuntu. (Of course, there is also software like yum which runs on other Linux distributions, but I'm not as familiar with it.) The real strength of such a package management system, however, is that new applications can be easily added and maintained to this system.
I recently discovered a program for OS X called AppFresh, which partially replicates the features of APT. Basically, it queries your system to determine which software is installed, and then uses iusethis.com to check if any updates are available. It also integrates a bunch of tools to add programs to iusethis, as well as add existing programs to your iusethis profile. Pretty cool.
However, I think that a better solution would be for system services such as Software Update to allow programs to register a feed of some sort which can be polled for program updates, thereby allowing all software to use a single service to notify the user of available updates, and/or install them automatically. Perhaps I'm not seeing the big picture, however, and this creates some sort of security issue.