My company recently purchased a new Kodak EasyShare camera for one of our warehouses. There’s a lifespan of approx. 2 years for anything electronic on a loading dock, and the previous camera was called to its heavenly reward. Or run over by a forklift–there’s some uncertainty there.
EasyShare cameras can be mounted via USB connection, and operate pretty much as a USB drive, or you can install the EasyShare software for some added functionality. I was disappointed in Kodak when the installation committed three cardinal sins of software installs:
1) Slow. It took nearly 10 minutes to install, and required a reboot.
2) Unwanted icons on the desktop without asking. I’m not so picky about the program icon on my desktop without being asked, but I’d prefer being asked. One of the two icons was QuickTime, which is notorious for this (as well as one in the Quick Launch bar, but these are a beef with Apple, not Kodak). The third was an icon to download and install FireFox. WTF? Unrelated software and shortcut clutter. Stop that! Leave my desktop alone–I have it just how I want it.
3) The last one is unpardonable. An un-cancellable wizard, not for configuration, but for information gathering. Kodak wants to know where you bought your camera, but “gift” isn’t an option (“other” is). But the worst is a setup for Kodak’s EasyShare Gallery, which sounds like a photo-sharing site. The three options are presented below. To paraphrase, “I have an account”, “I want an account”, or “I want an account later”. There’s no “Thanks but no thanks” option. And that is unconsionable.
I finished the wizard, and promptly uninstalled the software.
My advice–avoid EasyShare software until Kodak repents. The cameras are good, but don’t install the software.
