Vendors of "free" software programs have started getting into this annoying habit of forcing updates down users throats these days! The sad thing is that these updates aren't updates in the traditional sense of the word; they just make you re-download the entire software again!

The funny thing is that the software seems to just give up the ghost after a preset period of time has expired! There are no discreet checks with an internet server to see whether a new version is in fact available! I wonder what would happen if the time expires and the vendor doesn't manage to release a newer version! So far I've found Google SketchUp and the VMWare virtualization server behaving this way. When they say its free, it should be free forever! It is pretty silly making people download updates when the user is not looking for one especially when these updates are king size files (around 19MB for Google Sketchup and around 150MB for VMWare server)!

Now don't get me wrong. I think it is really cool that these corporations are letting people use their software for free and it is even cooler that they want them to always use the latest and the greatest version. Its just that I don't want them deciding when I need the software updated (security updates are an entirely different issue altogether though; they're like medicine, you just hold your breath and swallow!).