Growling growl

Suddenly whenever a person comes on line when using Skype, a message appears on the computer screen saying who it is.
First it was believed this was really neat.
While puzzled how this suddenly could happen.

But then yesterday out of the blue a similar message came on the screen saying that now there was an update of “Growl” available.
“Growl” ?
What is “Growl” ?
A new trick to have a computer worm enter the hard disk?

To be on the safe side, “Growl” was Googled.
And it is indeed a software program.
That can do things on the computer like informing who has come on line for Skype.
Officially it says this: “Growl is a notification system for Mac OS X: it allows applications that support Growl to send you notifications”.

But how then can “Growl” suddenly become manifest if it is totally unknown and therefore never downloaded, installed and made operational?
Who here is in control, fervent and loyal blog readers?
How far can it go in others controlling your computer?

More research revealed that Growl is sometimes packaged with other software program.
And this is the explanation.
Recently, in the new Apple shop in Temecula, California, USA, the latest version of Photoshop was acquired.
CS5.
It was installed on the MacBook Pro and used with great pleasure and satisfaction ever since.
Now it has become clear that Adobe, the maker of Photoshop, includes “Growl” and simply installs it without informing the customer.
“Growl” might be perfect for Photoshop but it also affects other programs like Skype.
A ghost is put into the machine.

The policy of Adobe is to pretend this is an acceptable way of doing.
While “Growl” says they believe it is very unfortunate in this way their software is distributed.
And they offer on their website another program to uninstall “Growl”.

Of course “Growl” is not very sorry at all.
And very few people will ever go through the hassle to uninstall “Growl”.

What to do?
One can see “Growl” as a gift.
A present.
And make the best use of “Growl” as possible.
What the heck.


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To learn more about “Growl”, see:
http://growl.info/



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