Poll Results: Do You Use Software Update? Last week we asked how often you have Software Update set to check for new software. Of the more than 1,600 responses, 21 percent have it set to check every day, 40 percent check weekly (which is the default setting), a mere 2 percent check monthly, and only 4 percent don't use Software Update at all. The most interesting group of responses, however, came from the 33 percent of people who use Software Update manually. As we heard on TidBITS Talk, many of these folks use Software Update to tell them what's available, but don't let it download and install automatically. Instead, they either download manually in Software Update (use the Download Checked Items to Desktop command in the File menu in the Jaguar version of Software Update) or download from Apple's Web site by hand and install at a later date. Using Software Update only for notification provides the opportunity to download and install at a more convenient time, not to mention a chance to read reports from more adventurous users and news sites before risking an installation. And speaking of news sites, these results and the comments we received tell us that a large number of our readers learn about updates from TidBITS, which reinforced our decision to keep covering updates of interest even when we have little additional information to add. [ACE]

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