Flash Player on the Mac is always in need of an update – or so it seems.
One particular problem is that the current update checking system seems to merely displays a web page with the current version numbers. That page also appears to contain no direct download links at all. The page it should link to is the Flash download page.
What it should ideally do is to automatically update using Sparkle or similar. I don’t want it to check constantly in the background, simply check and update when I click the “check Now” button.
Failing that, it should clearly state whether the current installation is up-to-date or not.
I don’t want to have to compare version numbers on a page that lists 8 different product version numbers. The software knows which variant it is, its own version number and a web service can be provided to display the latest numbers. It’s trivial to download the latest version number and test to see if it is the same as the installed version, then provide a direct download link if it isn’t.
In fairness some progress has been made in flash installing, at least they now include a standard pkg installer and progress is being made on providing release notes. But much more progress (or the demise of Flash) is still clearly needed.