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GIMP Windows Installers move from Sourceforge to ftp.gimp.org

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Re: GIMP Windows Installers move from Sourceforge to ftp.gimp.org

#31

Post by telephonetemp »

chrismorgan wrote: post #27
jeswin wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should then consider a better host. SourceForge is clearly a scamware host now; maybe ever since Dice.com took over. And to be honest, just seeing a file hosted on SourceForge casts doubts on the quality of the app. - Most users just click OK for installers, it is like the EULA - I am yet to see a toolbar that does anything useful to anybody; other than make their system slower and buggy. I hold a very low opinio…

(I shall ignore the toolbar installation matter; that has been discussed at length in the linked thread and there is little value in continuing that here.) > You should then consider a better host. Very well then; step one: identify a better host where PortableApps.com can get over 50TB per month for free. I'm not aware of any other than SourceForge which would do such a thing and John does not have the money to spen…

>identify a better host where PortableApps.com can get over 50TB per month for free

With those amounts of traffic for SF's larger projects I wonder how and if one could build a competing website for hosting binary FOSS today and have it be profitable without resorting to shady tactics. Clearly, making the projects themselves pay is not an option.

As for SF, even before the installer business under the current management it had really misleading banners everywhere. I doubt they would have resorted to those of they could have been comfortably profitable with AdWords.

Re: GIMP Windows Installers move from Sourceforge to ftp.gimp.org

#32

Post by hrjet »

SF didn't have a good sustenance plan. If they had a way to charge users directly (instead of bombarding them with ads), they could have continued to provide good service to open-source projects.

As a user, it is a good idea to research the sustenance plan of a service before using it.

Re: GIMP Windows Installers move from Sourceforge to ftp.gimp.org

#33

Post by copx »

jevinskie wrote: post #5

This is also a problem with FileZilla. Sourceforge pushing adware? I never thought I would see the day - totally absurd! https://forum.filezilla-project.org/viewtopic.php?t=30240

Some people here seem to be seriously confused by anti-SF FUD.

These ad-ware loaded installers are not the default. You have to explicitly opt-in. It provides SF and projects hosted there (a kinda shady) optional way to make money.

The FileZilla installer contains ad-ware because the FileZilla developers chose to add it. It is their attempt to make money. I use SF too but none of my projects come with ad-ware installers.

One should point out that bundling ad-ware is a common way developers of free (as in beer) software make money in the Windows world.. so SF has not cooked up some nefarious new scheme here.

Re: GIMP Windows Installers move from Sourceforge to ftp.gimp.org

#34

Post by tedunangst »

chrismorgan wrote: post #28
eliteraspberrie wrote: post #11

Amazon Route 53 has a feature called Latency Based Routing , which you can use to distribute traffic to your own mirrors. With AWS, Rackspace and other similar cheap hosting, I see no reason for a SourceForge. By the way, SourceForge, Freecode (aka Freshmeat) and Slashdot were all acquired by Dice.com in September 2012.

The GIMP uses an awful lot of bandwidth monthly, well into the terabytes monthly, I believe. PortableApps.com is another project and one which I know much more about due to my involvement; it goes through over 50TB per month and with something like S3 that is already well over $5,000 per month at a minimum. No reason for SourceForge?

What are people downloading? At 20MB per download, that's more than 2.5 million downloads per month.

Re: GIMP Windows Installers move from Sourceforge to ftp.gimp.org

#35

Post by shadowmint »

copx wrote: post #33
jevinskie wrote: post #5

This is also a problem with FileZilla. Sourceforge pushing adware? I never thought I would see the day - totally absurd! https://forum.filezilla-project.org/viewtopic.php?t=30240

Some people here seem to be seriously confused by anti-SF FUD. These ad-ware loaded installers are not the default. You have to explicitly opt-in. It provides SF and projects hosted there (a kinda shady) optional way to make money. The FileZilla installer contains ad-ware because the FileZilla developers chose to add it. It is their attempt to make money. I use SF too but none of my projects come with ad-ware install…

There, fixed that typo for you:

    One should point out that bundling ad-ware is a common 
    way *morally bankrupt money grabbing* developers of 
    free (as in beer) software ...

Re: GIMP Windows Installers move from Sourceforge to ftp.gimp.org

#36

Post by JohnTHaller »

jeswin wrote: post #19
JohnTHaller wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That article gets a lot of things very wrong as I pointed out when it was posted on HN last time (you'll see my comment at the top): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6262347 Github is an option for some folks but not for us. We need solid file hosting with lots of bandwidth (pushing well over 50TB a month at SF) that will be sticking around next month and next year. In my comment linked above, I mention that Gith…

You should then consider a better host. SourceForge is clearly a scamware host now; maybe ever since Dice.com took over. And to be honest, just seeing a file hosted on SourceForge casts doubts on the quality of the app. - Most users just click OK for installers, it is like the EULA - I am yet to see a toolbar that does anything useful to anybody; other than make their system slower and buggy. I hold a very low opinio…

> - Most users just click OK for installers, it is like the EULA

This installer specifically has a separate page for the offer with a big Accept and Decline button along with a What's This link in between that links to a page explaining it.

> - I am yet to see a toolbar that does anything useful to anybody

They also offer trial versions of certain software like antivirus and were working on getting other software on board last I chatted with them.

Like I said, I'm not involved in the process at present and do not participate in the optional bundling program. Bundling 3rd party offers is prohibited within PortableApps.com Format.

Re: GIMP Windows Installers move from Sourceforge to ftp.gimp.org

#37

Post by JohnTHaller »

jeswin wrote: post #29
chrismorgan wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(I shall ignore the toolbar installation matter; that has been discussed at length in the linked thread and there is little value in continuing that here.) > You should then consider a better host. Very well then; step one: identify a better host where PortableApps.com can get over 50TB per month for free. I'm not aware of any other than SourceForge which would do such a thing and John does not have the money to spen…

I get that. But somebody must be paying for 50TB, right? It is paid for by users who inadvertently installed bundled *-ware. Edit: I am not saying portableapps.com is at fault here for using this free facility. SourceForge is, for their business model.

No, it is not. It is mostly paid for by ads on the website. There are only a handful of SourceForge projects trying out this new, 100% optional, offer-based installer. PortableApps.com is not one of them. Bundling 3rd party offers is not permitted within PortableApps.com Format apps.

Re: GIMP Windows Installers move from Sourceforge to ftp.gimp.org

#38

Post by JohnTHaller »

yuhong wrote: post #24
jeswin wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should then consider a better host. SourceForge is clearly a scamware host now; maybe ever since Dice.com took over. And to be honest, just seeing a file hosted on SourceForge casts doubts on the quality of the app. - Most users just click OK for installers, it is like the EULA - I am yet to see a toolbar that does anything useful to anybody; other than make their system slower and buggy. I hold a very low opinio…

Note the only thing particularly special that SourceForge did however is the "bait and switch" part where they change the filename downloaded.

That was one of the things I brought up with them and offered up a solution that would not require an offer-based installer that then downloaded the actual file the user wanted. It would be open source and based on work I've done with PortableApps.com for several years.

Re: GIMP Windows Installers move from Sourceforge to ftp.gimp.org

#39

Post by JohnTHaller »

leeoniya wrote: post #9
conductor wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their mirrors system is working very well. It's very easy to distribute big files (like ISO images) through Sourceforge's mirrors. No wonder that Adobe's leaked users database was (or still is) being distributed using Sourceforge mirrors.

i cant imagine that it's better than torrent

Most companies block torrents. And software that does torrent downloads often gets flagged as badware.

We considered building torrent into the PortableApps.com Platform and getting users to help share bandwidth with other users, but those stumbling blocks are pretty big ones.

Re: GIMP Windows Installers move from Sourceforge to ftp.gimp.org

#40

Post by JohnTHaller »

yuhong wrote: post #25
JohnTHaller wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That article gets a lot of things very wrong as I pointed out when it was posted on HN last time (you'll see my comment at the top): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6262347 Github is an option for some folks but not for us. We need solid file hosting with lots of bandwidth (pushing well over 50TB a month at SF) that will be sticking around next month and next year. In my comment linked above, I mention that Gith…

OT, but I wonder if SourceForge would create an Enterprise Edition again.

They did once, a long time ago. But Github has a big headstart on them in that department now... and $100m they just raised earlier this year to keep growing.
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