251–260 of 468 posts
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Won't be long before this rule of thumb goes out of the window. They'll probably make a one by one pixel link that links to the clean download file.
Maybe we could write a chrome/firefox plugin that highlights downloads that are from the same domain? Or perhaps hides non-domain ones? Would that clean up most of these issues? You'd probably have to have a button to toggle this on and off.
PG: care to comment? Were you involved in this investment decision?
One thing to keep in mind is that YC funds groups. If a team is funded to do one thing, then pivots to doing something else later, it's not like YC is going to de-fund you. (I don't know anything about this specific company)
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…
"They are liars, shady business, IP violators and are downright dangerous." This is completely prejudice! You've never met Install Monetizer, and don't know if they participate in the same activities as the companies that you're referring to. "I believe OP is very polite: There are no good reasons to not shame them publicly." This is childish, and I'd expect better from any contributing member of VLC.
I never mentionned IM.
Also, see the comment from patio11 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5060399
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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...
This is the reason why I don't understand that people say that Linux is for "technical" users while Windows is for regular consumers. In Linux it's easier to install something that in Windows. E.g. to install a CD to MP3 rip program, in Archlinux all you do is: # Search for some mp3 ripper program pacman -Ss mp3 | grep rip # Install one of them from the list that looked ok from the description pacman -S ripperx In Wi…
Sure, as long as it's in your distro, and it's the version you want, and you haven't installed anything else that might interact with it from another source. But if any of those three statements is not true, best to start praying to whatever deities you believe in for one of them to help you, because chances are no-one else is going to.
The thing that really amazes me is that it's 2013, there are billions of computer-using people in the world running on only a tiny handful of major operating system flavours, the collective loss due to junkware or outright malware is staggering in both economic and quality of life terms, and still none of those operating systems has yet adopted a basic security model that jails applications so by default they can only ever install code, update settings and manipulate documents of their own type.
I appreciate that, as Microsoft learned with Windows Vista, overly aggressive access control/user prompting can be counter-productive. Still, many of the behaviours that make user-hostile undesirable shouldn't even be possible at the OS level, and certainly not by default.
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I've had that happen, but the ads only show up in that one app. They can't install ads across my whole iPhone like most adware does.
May be the case on iOS but with Android I've had apps that stick extra shortcuts on my homescreen and spam notifications every few hours. This makes battery life and usability a lot worse throughout the phone until you can find and kill the offending app.
Ad Network Detector
Addons Detector
AirPush Detector
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One thing to keep in mind is that YC funds groups. If a team is funded to do one thing, then pivots to doing something else later, it's not like YC is going to de-fund you. (I don't know anything about this specific company)
Not today, but this could be terrible for PR for YC over the medium term given the vitriolic hatred it inspires in techies, and I'll bet the reason PG is not responding here is because they're figuring out behind closed doors what they can and should do about this sort of thing. Obviously they don't tell their companies what to do, but they may end up needing to institute some additional general guidelines and contin…
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…
Ninite is great and has saved me time in the past. What exactly does this have to do with the article? Are you implying that since Y Combinator funded non-junk applications that it's okay to now fund junk applications?
The problem is deceptive software. That we're funded by YC (or that InstallMonetizer is) is a red herring. But it sure does get some clicks!
On a perfect version of HN the top comments would be about solving the problems in posts, not elaborating on them.
Not to dump on HN though. This is a bug in human nature.
Glad to hear you like Ninite and that we saved you time, thanks for using it!
There's a public company in Israel called Babylon whose business model is giving away a popular translator software in exchange for installing spyware. They're huge and are planning an American IPO this year. Some people here are saying that it's all a big stack of cards and investors are going to lose all their money, but the analysts are actually saying that it's a valid business model and the company is underprice…
That is, "in the good old days", facebook or google really only tracked what you did, on facebook or google, while crapware could track everything you did on the computer.
Now, of course, as more and more of our lives are based around our browsers, and google and facebook track more of what you do anywhere on the web, not just on their sites, so I suppose it's not that different.