Via Greg, Google's released the Google Pack, a nice collection of fairly established software along with their own updater. I think this would be great for my mom, although RealPlayer is Satan.
- Adobe Reader 7 (Evil: Use Foxit)
- Ad-Aware SE Personal (Iffy: Use SpyBot)
- GalleryPlayer HD Images
- Google Desktop
- Google Earth
- Google Pack Screensaver (NICE: This is a VERY nice Photo Screensaver that is multi-monitor aware!)
- Google Picasa Photo Organizer/Editor
- Google Talk (Eh, not so much: Use Skype)
- Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer
- Google Video player
- Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar (Nice way to proliferate Firefox by including it)
- Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition (Cheesy way to bait and switch with a 6-month "Trial" subscription.") WARNING: This one installs without asking. Not cool. You can uninstall stuff for the "Installed Software" Tab.
- RealPlayer (Satan: This is how the devil gets your immortal soul, it starts with RealPlayer...)
- Trillian (Ok, but I'm using MSN Messenger Beta 8...we'll see....)
It's easy to see where this is going, of course, as Google will likely start charging for the prime real estate on their own Add/Remove Programs page. Still, I dig it, and I hope it starts serving up a bunch of Open Source software. This may turn out to be a standard thing I will install on my relatives machines.
Now playing: Freshlyground - Mowbray Kaap