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Until further notice, think twice before using Google to download software

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Re: Until further notice, think twice before using Google to download software

#41

Post by haunter »

vehemenz wrote: post #37
haunter wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows does https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Package_Manager https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/wi... And if not official then you can always use Chocolatey https://chocolatey.org/

How many packages are on Microsoft's official repository? Where can I see a list?

There are 2 sources.

A community repo: https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs/tree/master/manifes...

You can, and "highly encouraged" to pull request packages

The other one is the MS App Store itself

Re: Until further notice, think twice before using Google to download software

#43

Post by consumer451 »

tech234a wrote: post #33
vehemenz wrote: post #29

It boggles my mind that neither macOS nor Windows has an official, comprehensive package manager. Sometimes the only way to get software is to download binaries from a Google search like it's 2003. On macOS, 90% of what you'd ever need is on Homebrew—this is more or less a solved problem—but it's still unofficial and Apple promotes their pointless App Store instead. In Windows land, the unofficial package managers ar…

Windows has winget built in.

I had no idea this existed. Neato!

  C:\>winget search "hacker news"

  Name               Id           Version Source
  ------------------------------------------------
  Hacker News Reader 9WZDNCRDKBC1 Unknown msstore
  Hacker News (YC)   9NBLGGH1RHHV Unknown msstore
I have no idea on the provenance of these packages, so will not be installing until I understand this more, but thanks for sharing winget.

"winget search torrent" listed some apps which I had never heard of before.

Here is winget's submission requirements info:

> Expectations for submissions:

> The manifest complies with the schema requirements. All URLs in the manifest lead to safe websites.

> The installer and application are virus free. The package may be identified as malware by mistake. If you believe it is a false positive you can submit the installer to the Microsoft Defender team for analysis.

> The application installs and uninstalls correctly for both administrators and non-administrators.

> The installer supports non-interactive modes.

> All manifest entries are accurate and not misleading.

>The installer comes directly from the publisher's website.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/pa...

Re: Until further notice, think twice before using Google to download software

#44

Post by GeekyBear »

capableweb wrote: post #30
jpmattia wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like many here, I have a sysadmin side gig for my aging dad: uBlock is essentially required as anti-virus software. While it's great that google figured out how to monetize search by inserting ads, it was a lot more ethical back when their major demographic was geeks who could tell the difference between an ad link and a genuine result. Now? Not so much.

> it was a lot more ethical back when their major demographic was geeks who could tell the difference between an ad link and a genuine result I think the ads used to be more distinct as well, with a different background color even, if I remember correctly. I guess it's a fine line to walk between "It should be obvious what is advertisement" vs "Users should be confused enough to sometimes click the advertisement", an…

Ads were not only a different color, they were also limited to the margins of the page and did not appear in the list of search results.

As a matter of fact, when Google was the scrappy new underdog, they used to make fun of the legacy search engines for the practice of mixing ads into the list of search results.

Re: Until further notice, think twice before using Google to download software

#45

Post by xmodem »

chaostheory wrote: post #12

I can’t replicate this. Maybe it’s because I’m logged into Google when I search?

Me neither, the examples called out in the article have likely all been culled by now. I do have to wonder why entering ad keywords for names of popular software doesn't immediately flag for review though.

Re: Until further notice, think twice before using Google to download software

#46

Post by charcircuit »

arthurofcharn wrote: post #34

Google was once considered trustworthy. It never was, but we thought it trustworthy. Where can you find a trustworthy source for software? Depends on your platform. Linux: Your package manager. In my case, apt. Mac: Apple has an app store of its own. Use that, or one of the BSD package management systems ported over. Ios: Apple app store is decently curated. Android: Google's app store is terribly curated. Give up no…

Linux package managers are not trustworthy. That is another case where everyone pretends that it is. Usually packages are created and updated by random people and can be pseudonymous.

Re: Until further notice, think twice before using Google to download software

#47

Post by flangola7 »

grishka wrote: post #39
GavinAnderegg wrote: post #2

Google's search product has become a shadow of its former self. Every year it seems harder to find what I'm looking for. The top half of the first search result page is now (potentially malicious) ads, and what follows is likely SEO spam. I need to add "reddit" or "stackoverflow" to half my searches these days so I'm not served nearly useless results. It's a sad decline from 10+ years ago when I'd type a half-formed…

It's gotten so bad that there's now an ad blocker filter list that removes the StackOverflow clones from search results.

Do you have a handy link?

Re: Until further notice, think twice before using Google to download software

#48

Post by voytec »

Loughla wrote: post #31
GavinAnderegg wrote: post #2

Google's search product has become a shadow of its former self. Every year it seems harder to find what I'm looking for. The top half of the first search result page is now (potentially malicious) ads, and what follows is likely SEO spam. I need to add "reddit" or "stackoverflow" to half my searches these days so I'm not served nearly useless results. It's a sad decline from 10+ years ago when I'd type a half-formed…

Every google search has to have either "+reddit" or "+stackoverflow" depending on what I'm trying to accomplish. And EVERY search for products needs to say "-pinterest".

Another example: music videos may require "-reaction -reacting". But it's the same or worse with DuckDuckGo.

Re: Until further notice, think twice before using Google to download software

#49

Post by _huayra_ »

vehemenz wrote: post #29

It boggles my mind that neither macOS nor Windows has an official, comprehensive package manager. Sometimes the only way to get software is to download binaries from a Google search like it's 2003. On macOS, 90% of what you'd ever need is on Homebrew—this is more or less a solved problem—but it's still unofficial and Apple promotes their pointless App Store instead. In Windows land, the unofficial package managers ar…

I've been using Scoop on Windows [0]. Chocolatey is probably the more "professional" answer, but Scoop doesn't require Admin privileges, which I could never quite figure out how to do with Chocolatey.

[0] https://scoop.sh/

Re: Until further notice, think twice before using Google to download software

#50

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

arthurofcharn wrote: post #34

Google was once considered trustworthy. It never was, but we thought it trustworthy. Where can you find a trustworthy source for software? Depends on your platform. Linux: Your package manager. In my case, apt. Mac: Apple has an app store of its own. Use that, or one of the BSD package management systems ported over. Ios: Apple app store is decently curated. Android: Google's app store is terribly curated. Give up no…

> Android: Google's app store is terribly curated. Give up now.

Google's store might be a lost cause, but ironically the fact that the platform isn't a walled garden can be used to our advantage here: Use F-droid.

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