While Google Earth is totally cool, Google has lost common sense. They are programming like MS---lots of features, but no respect for the users. They want to control when and how you update Google Earth.

Because the content changes, they want to keep you current, but they are not smart enough to figure a better way than running as root.

This shows a lack of basic understanding of unix, Mac OS X, and the Mac market.

Mac users are smart and don't need Google to hold our hands. We can update when we need to.

Also, desktop processes should never run as root. The potential risks are too great. I will not run the new Google Earth 5 because Google apparently does not understand this. Sad, but apparently true. If running as super user is the only way for them to update they have lost my respect for their programming skills. They are not skilled enough if they need to run as root. This is just wrong thinking and has terrible security risk potential. . No one but Apple and me are skilled enough to manage root on my computer, and Apple has it disabled by default.

Send Google Earth 5 packing. Save yourself some misery. Avoid Google Earth 5 and later.