Has there been a more obnoxious piece of software than Real Player? I remember back in ’96 hearing a radio commercial about this new software product called Real Audio which could stream audio over the internet. I recall thinking how cool that sounded and went home and downloaded it. Back in the days of 28k dialup the audio wasn’t high quality and the streams were choppy at times but the concept was cool and anyone could see this was going to make waves down the road.
So fast forward a few years to the time Real Audio changes its name to just Real and begins to complain about the Microsoft monopoly and the inclusion of Media Player on every copy of Windows. This is the time when idiots at Real decided they had to be “in your face” with their products. If they couldn’t keep Microsoft’s Media Player off your machine they could pester you at every turn. Real Player is like installed spam all over your computer. Once Real Player is installed it attempts to take over your computer. It puts itself all over your system including the system tray, quick start menu and programs menu. It’s simply the most annoying product I’ve ever installed on my system by a wide margin. And good luck trying to figure out the install process and not having the Real Center auto-launch in your system tray each time you boot Windows.
It’s been a while since I’ve installed any Real product because it feels so creepy, so slimy. It’s just not worth the hassle even if the video/audio stream is only available in a Real format. What happened at Real? Did a group of executives sit around and brainstorm ideas on how to make their products as annoying as possible? Led by Rob Glaser, Real has taken a revolutionary product and ruined it.
I expect Real to become even more aggressive in pushing its products on customer’s computers having been outflanked by Apple and the popular iTunes. Good riddance, Real.
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