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RealNetworks wants you to install the RealOne player without bothering to look at the options. That way it wins and you lose -- big time.
  technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

Don't let the 'RealOne' player from Real Networks steal away your favorite file associations


Jan. 30, 2002


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2002, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2002, The Post-Standard

   I installed a new Windows version of the Real player the other day. I liked it a lot. But I was reminded again of the insulting behavior shown by RealNetworks, the company behind RealAudio and RealVideo.
   The insults come from the way RealNetworks designed the installation options screen for its new media player. Unless you are a professional cynic the way I am, you'll probably never realize that you are being tricked into giving over all your audio and video playing to RealNetworks.
   This stinks. It's time for RealNetworks to start acting like a responsible company.
   The new player isn't called the RealPlayer any more. It's called RealOne. The name was changed because RealNetworks wants you and me to take a new attitude toward the RealPlayer -- oops, toward RealOne.
   Instead of thinking of RealNetwork's software as a way of showing RealVideo and playing RealAudio -- something that, after all, makes sense, right? -- RealNetworks wants you to use its software to do other things also. I've got nothing against grand visions and lofty aspirations, so you might think I'm all in favor of the plan RealNetworks has for its playing software.
   The plan is simple. It wants you to use RealOne when you listen to MP3 files. It wants you to use RealOne when you play CDs. It wants you to use RealOne when you play WAV files. It wants you to use RealOne when you play MPEG movies, when you listen to Windows Media Format files, when you look at animations on the Web.
   I've said this gently. Maybe too gently. Let's go back over this with a little gusto.
   RealNetworks wants you to scrap that WinAmp player you use to listen to MP3 files. It wants you to forget that nifty CD player that comes with Windows. It's trying really hard to get you to forget that Microsoft ever made a media player.
   Way to go, right? What this country needs is a touch of old-fashioned bravado -- right?
   Wrong-O, pal. RealNetworks wants to replace all those other players the new-fashioned way. It wants you to install the RealOne player without bothering to look at the options. That way, RealOne gives you a Real treat: The software you normally use is ignored by Windows, and RealOne becomes the center of both your life and your frustrations.
   RealNetworks made a huge mistake when it designed the installation routine for RealOne. It decided to treat you and me like chumps. The installation method automatically assigns every kind of media file to RealOne unless you intentionally refuse to let it do that -- unless you intentionally "opt out" of the changes it is about to make.
   The notion that innocent Windows users should have to "opt out" of something they almost surely wouldn't ever want to do is catching on around the world. So are viruses, spyware programs and such things as hunger and pestilence.
   So take my advice. If you decide to install the RealOne player, do two things. First, don't waste your money. Get the free version. Paying your own good money to be insulted is dumb. Second, watch the installation very, very carefully. You'll notice, if you look hard enough, that some of the "Opt Out" checkboxes are hidden below a scrolling window. Scroll that window down to make your choices. Don't let RealNetworks make them for you.