iTunes for Windows is by far the most bloated bit of software I have ever seen. The shear amount of crap it installs in unbeliveable:
- iTunes itself
- Quicktime
- Apple Mobile Device service
- Bonjour Service
- iPod Service
- iTunesHelper startup task
- QTTask startup task
- Firefox plugin
- iPod Classic drivers
- iPhone drivers
- Apple Software Update
Grand Total: 276MB
Actually, they removed the DNS Resolver service from iTunes 8 (wtf – Windows can already resolve DNS).
On top of all that, iTunes itself contains half of MacOS. OSX font rendering and associated fonts, graphic rendering elements etc.
You also have every supported language installed, and support for every Apple device (iPod Classic, iPod Touch, iPhone, AppleTV), network sharing and streaming… The list goes on.
I could just about forgive all this if there was an alternative, but if you own an iPhone or an iPod Touch there isn’t. Apple decided to encrypt the iTunes database and make it impossible for 3rd party software to work with their hardware.
One Comment
Thanks for this list. I knew it installed much…but jeeeeeeeez louis.