461–468 of 468 posts
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Botnets don't usually include a low-prominence opt-out link / checkbox / something that might not look quite like a button. Maybe they'd walk free if they did...
That is really interesting. What are the legal implications of using a computer in a botnet if the owner of that computer agrees to a EULA, I wonder? Edit: I should say, "agrees" to it (unknowingly).
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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.
VLC for Windows is hard to compile to be honest. But binary patching is doable, indeed.
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…
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…
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic (but I'll assume you're not). From my point of view, your comment describes exactly why Windows is easier. In the Linux example you're using the command line with commands folks don't know about ('pacman', 'grep') with flags they'd have to read about ('-S' and "How do you make that vertical line thing?"). Of course they'd also have to understand the output of those commands. The…
I also know someone who is not good with computers at all, but has used DOS before using Windows. She could do just as much in DOS as in Windows, even thought DOS did involve the command line (and lots of word perfect).
So if you simply have a printout saying what the command to install something in Linux is, and another printout saying what to click on in Windows to install something, I think that conceptually the Linux one will be slightly simpler.
Same also with tech support!
In Linux, tech support goes like this: "Please run this command and give me the output". "Now run that command" ok, problem fixed.
In Windows it's "click here. do you see that now? Now click that. No, I mean THAT. Do you see a button at the bottom? Yes, that one! Click it. etc....".
And finally, if we're gonna be talking to computers in the future, talking is more like a command line interface than a GUI, and despite that is more natural.
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Your overall point is correct, but your "under Windows" example is oversimplified. The Windows user still needs to know: 1) What an "installer" is 2) Where on the filesystem it goes when it's downloaded 3) How to navigate to that location in Explorer 4) That double-clicking the installer runs it etc. Some of these are things that you can learn from general Windows usage, but then the same could be said of several of…
Parent's example was Arch Linux, not Ubuntu. And it was oversimplified.
And it is normally simpler, I mean, if you already know the name of the program you want, it's just:
pacman -S gimp
Which is of course just as simple as Ubuntu:
apt-get install gimp
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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.
But Linux will never be in heavy demand as a brand . No great number of people will ever want to have Linux for the hell of it. The only way Linux could experience an upsurge in popularity would be through a mass increase in consumers' awareness of crapware and similar phenomena. And that could thus only be a small upsurge.
This is definitely not true. The following scenario seems to be quite possible: Due to the various problems of Windows 8, developers massively revolt and most applications are either written to older API's, or use cross-platform environments like C#, Python or Java. This essentially changes the Windows API from a moving target to a stationary target; as a result, Wine catches up -- it reaches near-100% app compatibility, perhaps with the aid of a donation from a philanthropist, Google, or some other player. OEM's recognize the cost savings possible from avoiding the Microsoft tax, and with good software compatibility now possible, they start selling discount models with Linux instead. Microsoft stops issuing new licenses for Windows less than 8 to try to pressure developers to port their stuff to Windows 8 by forcing customers to upgrade. But the move is too little, too late: The customers revolt, and since the alternative is already out of the bottle, people jump ship en masse due to lower prices and Windows 8's shortcomings.
Is this a particularly likely scenario? No. But it seems plausible, and it's not due to crapware, or consumer awareness about anything other than price tags.
We're investigating. It will take at least a couple days, because we'll need to meet with the founders in person. FWIW, the install window Patrick overlaid on top of InstallMonetizer's site in that screenshot is not actually InstallMonetizer.
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...
