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Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

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Re: Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

#231

Post by TillE »

Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #181
api wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Desktop apps with built-in ads are okay. I've used a few here and there. I've also seen shareware model software that has ads that can be turned off by registering. That's fine too. In this case the ads are part of the application . They live within it. Uninstall the app, and the ads are gone. Such ads also tend not to invade users' privacy outside the app. They might send stuff about what you do in the app, but if y…

I don't disagree with your overall point but "toolbar" is not in the same class as "HIV". A little perspective please.

It's humor via hyperbole. Compare to the common hacker usage of "evil".

Re: Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

#232

Post by SwellJoe »

S4M wrote: post #182
jbk wrote: post #49

I can speak quite a bit about this "industry": We (VLC) receive 1 of those offers per day. They are liars, shady business, IP violators and are downright dangerous. They have all those great offers for you, but they refuse to give any details as soon as you ask any question. More than half of them are "the biggest in the world" (sic). They lie about download numbers, about download size, about number of software actu…

After reading some comments and noticing that you're one of the VLC lead developers (awesome software, by the way!), I am wondering if you have a way to make VLC notify its users at the first launch (after install) and tell them something like "You have installed VLC, it should have come without any additional software such as tool bars or file compressors. If this was not your case, you probably installed it from a…

VLC is open source. It would be trivial for a rebundler to remove that warning. If they are violating the license already, there seems to be no impediment to changing the code for personal gain.

Re: Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

#233

Post by loxs »

cgh wrote: post #217
npsimons wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Linux on the desktop were to get popular, I'd hate to imagine what might happen to the open source Fedora and Debian/Ubuntu repositories. Nothing. In case you haven't been paying attention, Debian repositories were "app stores" before there were app stores. The software goes through extensive vetting and rigorous testing; no, I'm not saying every line of code is inspected, but to claim that a Debian maintainer wou…

You can install whatever 3rd party software you want on a Mac, side by side with software from the App Store. Note that this article is about PCs, not mobile. You seem to be conflating the two.

I don't see a really big difference between a PC and a phone. Don't see why one should be a walled garden and the other not.

Re: Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

#234

Post by jiggy2011 »

philbarr wrote: post #230
jiggy2011 wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of these freeware download sites tend to use mirror sites for the actual downloads. The download link for the actual product will often really be a redirect to a page with a "your download will start in 5 seconds" and then some JS triggers the actual download. Even the legit download will usually offer you toolbars and crap anyway.

We could add the most common mirror sites as exceptions, you could add your own, and of course you can always toggle it on and off? I think that may make it useful enough...

You could certainly create such a plugin, however those who would have the most use for it may not be those savvy enough to find and install it.

Re: Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

#235

Post by newsmaster »

jbk wrote: post #49

I can speak quite a bit about this "industry": We (VLC) receive 1 of those offers per day. They are liars, shady business, IP violators and are downright dangerous. They have all those great offers for you, but they refuse to give any details as soon as you ask any question. More than half of them are "the biggest in the world" (sic). They lie about download numbers, about download size, about number of software actu…

Please please please create auto-subtitles functionality for VLC on the Mac. I switched from Windows recently and there's nothing compared to Media Player Classic for easy subtitles. Thanks thanks thanks.

Re: Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

#236

Post by npsimons »

cgh wrote: post #217
npsimons wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Linux on the desktop were to get popular, I'd hate to imagine what might happen to the open source Fedora and Debian/Ubuntu repositories. Nothing. In case you haven't been paying attention, Debian repositories were "app stores" before there were app stores. The software goes through extensive vetting and rigorous testing; no, I'm not saying every line of code is inspected, but to claim that a Debian maintainer wou…

You can install whatever 3rd party software you want on a Mac, side by side with software from the App Store. Note that this article is about PCs, not mobile. You seem to be conflating the two.

Name Google's PC. The article may be about PCs, but the thread definitely devolved to talking about Android and iOS, and it's already been conceded that iOS doesn't allow third party apps. If I didn't know better, I might think you were trying to steer criticism away from Apple . . .

Re: Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

#237

Post by biot »

When it launched OpenCandy did this and all installs were opt-in only: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10094314-2.html

I'm not sure if that's changed in the meantime, but I recall it being a refreshing change from every other system which defaulted to automatically installing additional software rather than the user specifically having to choose to opt-in.

Re: Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

#238

Post by Shorel »

swies wrote: post #16

Y Combinator also funded our solution to crapware. http://ninite.com Basically we automate multiple installers and decline toolbars just like you would. Users range from the nontechnical to NASA. We even have a huge blind user base because these installers are frequently hell to navigate with a screenreader. We make money selling a Pro version with extra features to businesses and school IT departments. It works well…

The things I want:

Let me install an older version of uTorrent.

Let me install Steam in another location, not default.

Current ninite installs all I need except those two.

Re: Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

#239

Post by rsynnott »

veidr wrote: post #173
rsynnott wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is there something about OS X that makes bundleware more difficult to develop or is it just easier to monetise an OS X app without bundleware? MacOS apps very rarely have an installer, so there's little opportunity to install this sort of thing.

Installers are (rightfully) rare on OS X, but that doesn't preclude installing any random crapware you want. Your app can do it on first launch (or hey, tenth launch to make it less visible). Lots of apps have a first-launch screen where they confirm some options and maybe even ask for an admin password for housekeeping. Hmm, Monetizer.framework?

Users are trained to just accept whatever in installers, however, while popups on first launch demanding admin passwords will often be treated with a little more suspicion.

Re: Y Combinator is funding the future of spam in Windows

#240

Post by kybernetyk »

brudgers wrote: post #163
to3m wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect Partition Magic is intended merely as an example of the crapware-and-misleading-download-buttons trend. You can spot similar scamminess on (for example) http://getpaint.net/ and http://tortoisesvn.net/ .

The commenter purports to have a degree of technical expertise - they're running a VM and have some need for Partition Magic. Those features place the scenario many standard deviations from typical Windows user activities. More importantly, any person looking for Partition Magic in 2013 is likely to be an ideal candidate for crapware. They are performing system administrative tasks. They don't perform such tasks on W…

> In short, a person looking for Partition Magic in 2013 is likely to suffer from Dunning-Kruger syndrome.

I'm asking myself where I could have insulted you to provoke such a reaction.

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