The "the tacked-on whine" as you call it was referring to having to check for the latest version of this that and the other bloody plug-in. Point being, people just Want Shit To Work.
Yes, they do...and then they want it to do the Snazzy New Thing that didn't even exist when the thing was built (and integrate with the Wonderful Service and the other Hot Newness).
These are the two omnipresent and conflicting goals that people want out of any computer that's even vaguely general-purpose. Wait long enough, and you'll see it happen on iPads, too.
ETA: I mean, Hell, we're talking about a page in a web browser. This is an example of both the idea of doing everything simply in a self-contained way that Just Works with no fuss...and the post-1994 reality that people want to make web pages do everything, including building applications out of them and live-updating information. And that's even without involving browser plug-ins.
Yes, and I do sympathize. This stuff isn't like a light switch that you turn on and have the room all lit up despite whatever changes have been made to the backend with the transmission lines and generators, etc. But sometimes we want it to act that way.
