Aral Balkan

Nick Bradbury has a great blog post about how operating systems scare users from downloading and installing desktop applications with security alerts. There's a big difference between *being* secure and scaring users. It appears to me that the less secure an operating system is, the more it tends to resort to warnings as a way of limiting its liabilities (case in point: Windows and Internet Explorer).

Nick's post frames the issue as one of the reasons why people are moving to using web applications in favor of desktop applications but I want to bring this to the attention of the RIA crowd and Adobe. I know that Adobe (and Macromedia, previously) take security very seriously and I hope that they will continue to do so. However, while doing this, I hope that they remain very sensitive to not scaring users unnecessarily.

Comments

• I also just read Nick's post and instantly though about Apollo. Essentially you are asking people to download programs that anyone can write... Could this be the dawn of making spy ware and viruses accessible to anyone who has a little web development experience? Or will the fact you have to download the Apollo apps mean most people are scared to do so? Hopefully Adobe will restrict it in some way, but then if you restrict it too much it looses its power... tricky

  by Rob McMichael on 2006-12-20 14:42:13

• "It appears to me that the less secure and operating system is, the more it tends to resort to warnings as a way of limiting its liabilities" YES! Can anyone say Windows?!! It's good that somebody mentions this. Seasoned users might have no problems with this as they discern what could be a real treat and what not but beginner level users are frightened away with Paranoia by every security popup! I can see this with my sister who has not much knowledge about computers. So in this point I would never recommend Windows to a beginner. Vista just continues this behavior with it's execution prevention system! Every time you try to change vital settings the screens dimms out and the system warns you. Fortunately this can be turned off in the User Profile settings (and it's the first thing I turn off after installing Vista) but for beginners it is not recommended but it will be a huge annoyance to anyone!

  by sascha/hdrs on 2006-12-21 03:18:52

• Native installation concerns... Native installation concerns: Getting this into my blog's search engine... Nick Bradbury talks about the current user experience of installing OS-native code. In comments, "Khoji" nails a key concern of mine: "Actually, it is not just inexperienced...

  by JD on EP on 2006-12-21 15:47:47