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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

#381

Post by swies »

sharjeel wrote: post #367
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…

Thanks for the clarification. My natural reaction after reading the post was to get worried what Ninite does, which I regularly use. Could you please elaborate how exactly do you automate the installers? Do you modify the applications being installed?

We don't modify the apps. We run the installers in a hidden window and simulate the clicks to install them without toolbars.

Thanks for using Ninite!

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

#382

Post by socialist_coder »

jbk wrote: post #151
kbutler wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Googling for "vlc", "vlc download", or "vlc player", the top 3-4 results are all to videolan.org. Ads may distort this for some users, though...

Maybe because I spent almost 3 hours per week to clean it.

Wow. That really sucks man. I hope something changes where you don't have to do this forever.

I told my Dad's wife to download VLC and she ended up with the crapware version too. I didn't even realize they existed until then. I was shocked =(

You have my sympathies.

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

#383

Post by voltagex_ »

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…

Thank you for not caving into their offers.

Also, good luck with your Windows 8 project!

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

#384

Post by socialist_coder »

jbk wrote: post #151
kbutler wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Googling for "vlc", "vlc download", or "vlc player", the top 3-4 results are all to videolan.org. Ads may distort this for some users, though...

Maybe because I spent almost 3 hours per week to clean it.

Do you know if the Intel App-Up site is legit or do they also bundle the crapware installers?

http://www.appup.com/app-details/vlc?edgSrcID=398114176

It's the first thing I see for "VLC" when I turned off Ad Block.

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

#385

Post by drivebyacct2 »

notahacker wrote: post #285
api wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people these days are bashing Apple and Google for creating walled gardens with their app stores, but this is really the primary reason such walled gardens have taken off. They offer a mostly crapware-free experience. 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.

If desktop Linux was widely requested by the general public, PC vendors and download sites would heavily promote custom Linux builds complete with pre-installed crapware, dubious defaults and quite possibly broken upgrade paths and most consumers would never know the difference. They'd probably have their own whored-out repositories too.

Do you use desktop linux?

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

#386

Post by drivebyacct2 »

bjustin wrote: post #170
mylittlepony wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll take this chance to recommend the following linux distributions to those non-sysadmins who are wondering which one they can try out: - Fedora 17 with Gnome. Out of the box it offers all kinds of installation options, like the one I always wanted and only found in Fedora (in my words): "Use all this but only this free space, and also encrypt it". The only downside is that out of the box it lacks some things every…

If you can get used to Unity in a week or two, I recommend Ubuntu. Fedora has always worked fine for me, but Ubuntu tends to have fewer rough edges.

I use Ubuntu and I can't stand unity. It's far too easy to do `sudo apt-get install gnome-shell` and do `sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable; sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install cinammon` and still enjoy the Ubuntu base (community, font patches, etc). I've bounced around between many DEs lately. Elementary is really great, especially when I was just coming from OS X, but I've been shocked at how nice Cinnamon is.

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

#387

Post by mikeash »

jahitr wrote: post #117
rrouse wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cool thing about Mac applications is they are self contained. Very rarely do you see an actual installer. Uninstallation is usually just deleting the application from the Applications folder. I wish other operating systems did it that way. It's very convenient.

It isn't. Since every library the application needs is inside the bundle, you load multiple versions of the same lib on memory. Also counting the installer, the bundle and Brew or MacPorts you have a tons of way to install an app.

How often do you really have multiple third-party apps using multiple copies of the same third-party framework? How many third-party frameworks maintain binary compatibility between versions so that apps linked against different versions could still share a single installation of it?

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

#388

Post by rapind »

patio11 wrote: post #152

So when earlier it was mentioned, I assumed "They have to have a different angle on this; they're a YC company." And seeing a strong thread title and no evidence for it other than "The industry they're in is ridiculously seedy", I thought maybe HN was in rush to judgement mode. So I thought I'd try, you know, installing something. Make your own call: http://images1.bingocardcreator.com/blog-images/hn/its-not-a...

So this is potentially a little misleading. Is the screen shot of the installer actually a screenshot of InstallMonetizer in action, or is it just an existing / previous installer created by one of their clients (but not using InstallMonetizer).

I'm not a fan regardless, but I just wanted to make sure we're getting the right picture here. I came away from your comment believing this was a screen from their (InstallMonetizer's) actual installer, and I think everyone else did too. However, after reading pg's comment below, I'm no longer so sure that is the case.

Can you please clarify?

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

#389

Post by jacquesm »

nivla wrote: post #370
jacquesm wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They also have deals with download.com/softopedia/softonic to change/rewrap your installer, without your agreement, often violating your license; or they give back money to those websites, so they are ranked higher than normal other downloads. I can confirm this, it's the reason we stopped having a download altogether even though it offered features that were hard to do without a download. Using software I wrote as…

Heck, if it was just downloads I could still somehow steer clear of it but I really hate it when companies like Oracle and Adobe bundle this with their security updates and it is checked on by default[1]!! Even worse to realize that reputable companies such as Google, Ask and McAfee compensate them for doing it. [2][3] [1] http://i.imgur.com/3zWPK.jpg [2] http://i.imgur.com/5mAdH.png [3] http://i.imgur.com/P9CKl.png

That has to be a new low. Incredible, I never knew it had gotten this bad. I saw the whole download.com debacle as a bunch of jerks taking over a formerly reputable domain, but it looks as if this is now considered legitimate income across the board.

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

#390

Post by thaumaturgy »

madaxe wrote: post #351
cooldeal wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe he means that he needs to discuss this issue in person and will need a physical meeting, not that he invested without meeting them.

Ah crap, parse error, missed "with". Either way, strikes me as a dubious and reputationally dangerous model for YCombinator to get involved with.

YC funds enough founders now, with few enough partners, that it's entirely possible for someone to be doing something sneaky and YC wouldn't catch on right away.

Initially, YC just has the business model / product description statement from the founders, a video (do they still do that?), an MVP if one exists, and maybe a meeting with the founders.

The only way this could really negatively reflect on YC's integrity -- if that's up to us to judge anyway -- is if the accusations turn out to be true and YC either chooses not to investigate or chooses not to counsel the founders against doing something like this. (Remember, YC does not have a controlling interest in the teams.)

Since pg has said they're checking in to it, I don't think "YC is turning evil" is a reasonable narrative here.

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