RC1 - why old updates?

[tanstaafl]

Hi,

First, many thanks for Spybot S&D!

I'm just curious... after installing the new RC1 of 1.5, why does it tell me there are updates available as far back as 2005? In fact, why not include *all* updates up to the point in time of the release with the Installer?

[spybotsandra]

Hello,

That refers to the fact that lots of updates are updated.
And if you would make them complete new you would have to make a new installer each week.

Best regards
Sandra
Team Spybot

[tanstaafl]

Ummm...

Maybe you misunderstood my question...

I was not suggesting that you should repackage the entire installer every time an update is issued.

*But*...

I *am* suggesting that you *should* bundle in all previous updates every time you repackage the installer - ie, for a new *version* release.

Every other program that I have ever used works this way - when a new release is issued, there are ZERO updates available for it - although there may be updates available as soon as a day later.

[tanstaafl]

Hi,

I don't mean to sound ungrateful - I love Spybot S&D, and have never had any real problems using it - but this is something that I've never understood so I'd still like an answer to this question...

Why, immediately after installing a brand new released version, do I have to download updates that were issued TWO YEARS ago?

This makes absolutely ZERO sense to me, and NO program I have ever used does this.

Again - I am NOT suggesting that you repackage a new 'release' every time there is an update.

What I AM suggesting is that you INTEGRATE ALL OLDER UPDATES into a NEW release when you DO package a new release. I am actually confused and surprised that you wouldn't WANT to do this, to reduce the load on your update server(s) by not having these old updates required to be downloaded over and over and over again every time someone installs the new version.

E.g. - if I install this new release the day you release it, there should be ZERO updates available, then any new updates that are issued AFTER that release would start showing up as available.

Again, this just makes no sense to me, but hey... it's not like I'm gonna stop using it over this... :)

[tanstaafl]

The silence is deafening...

[bitman]

The problem with this idea is that many who install such programs never perform an update again. Thus, if you included the detections with the main package, they'd be using the detections from whenever that package was released, which is obviously not good.

Additionally, the main package of Spybot is generally released only once every year or two for several reasons. First, the package itself and the major executable files it contains must now be digitally signed, which is an expensive and time consuming process. Second, the main package is delivered by a different set of download sites than the updates, with different bandwidth concerns, so the main package is kept as lean as possible. Finally, if the package did contain the detections, most would be replaced within a week, making almost all of the updates it contains simply wasted space.

This is why spybotsandra stated the package would need to be completely replaced each week, which my explanation should show is messy and costly.

Updating any of the regularly changing detections and other supporting files in an entirely independent manner makes sense, especially in an Internet delivery based system. In fact most Internet delivered antimalware software now installs this way, it simply does the initial updates silently in the background so you're not aware that it's even happened.

Bitman