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What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps

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Re: What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps

#71

Post by jenscow »

noonespecial wrote: post #40
apetrovic wrote: post #27

Microsoft dropped the ball with lack of App Store. With all app store's drawbacks, that's the place where regular user can pay easily without thinking will someone steal his/her credit car number, the place where applications should be harmless, and the place where (and this is important) the user can compare prices between similar applications. Windows doesn't have the app store. And nobody (read: very, very small p…

The one who dropped the ball is CNet. They could have used their good name to establish a curated software marketplace and done subscription, app sales, freemium... anything at all other than giving their reputation a giant flush for a few bucks and earning themselves a 127.0.0.1 in the hosts file of computers I work on.

Back in the day, I probably would have made use of that - instead they made developers bid to have their products higher in the listings.

Re: What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps

#72

Post by pjc50 »

iwwr wrote: post #62
pjc50 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

App stores are hardly a silver bullet. There's all sorts of quasi-spyware and cloneware in the Play store.

Explicit permissions for desktop apps like mobile apps have would be a nice thing however.

UAC 2.0?

I don't think there's any way to get there from here, as it were. Win32 apps running on the same desktop by the same user can't really be protected from one another. The only way is a migration to a new system; Metro, Android-on-the-desktop, or iOS-on-the-desktop.

Re: What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps

#73

Post by cturhan »

libria wrote: post #65
cturhan wrote: post #39

I really wonder why people prefer some other websites to download the product instead of its own website. When you type "ccleaner", "kmplayer" etc on google, the first one is always the product website. The second and third ones are the websites distributing product with adware/spywares.

Maybe they're looking for a trusted curator or the "user" reviews give them a sense of reassurance. As an exercise, try to find the right download button on Imgburn's own website: http://www.imgburn.com/ Even during installation, you still have to navigate the "Uncheck spyware" minefield.[1] [1] http://www.jdhodges.com/blog/safe-version-imgburn-without-op...

Yep, I downloaded it 3 days ago and felt that confusion.

Re: What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps

#74

Post by guycook »

zxcdw wrote: post #66
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #41

And this is why Apple created Gatekeeper and made the Mac OS X App Store so ridiculously onerous for developers[1]. The software world is, for all intents and purposes, a thin sheen of gold flecks and diamonds atop a veritable cesspool of shit. You can just imagine the conversation at 1 Infinite Loop: Marketer: The Panic guys are considering pulling out of the App Store. Maybe we should reconsider our App Store strat…

> and that it's our own fault Whose fault exactly is it? Has anybody in HN worked with a company which does this crapware bundling, let alone creating? Or does anybody know anyone who's "in the business"? Because I, quite honestly, can't understand how or why people would be doing this. Is it really that "Well, I know this shit is going to infect thousands of machines with software which nobody would like to have, bu…

Pretty much, yes - if there's a buck to be made and the law isn't being broken (in a way that will be meaningfully prosecuted), someone will do it.

To answer your first question, someone from HN should surely about this given: http://www.istartedsomething.com/20130115/y-combinator-is-fu...

Extensive commentary at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5059806

Re: What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps

#75

Post by tdkl »

mxfh wrote: post #37
apetrovic wrote: post #27

Microsoft dropped the ball with lack of App Store. With all app store's drawbacks, that's the place where regular user can pay easily without thinking will someone steal his/her credit car number, the place where applications should be harmless, and the place where (and this is important) the user can compare prices between similar applications. Windows doesn't have the app store. And nobody (read: very, very small p…

Windows 8.x+ has an app store, but sometimes I think even Microsoft doesn't know it exists by all the crap and impostors it's listing in it. here are some common search terms: antivirus: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/search#q=antiviru... ccleaner: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/search#q=ccleaner...

That app store is for Modern apps.

Re: What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps

#76

Post by psykovsky »

serf wrote: post #26
psykovsky wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the #1 reason ALL the computers in my house aren't windows but Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is bundled with crap-ware , too; it's just more subtle. https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/ubuntu-spyware.html http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/09/ubuntu-bakes-amazon-...

I think you mean Unity. And that's what I use on my computer, but the rest of them are running lubuntu.

Re: What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps

#77

Post by jarcane »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #15
Renaud wrote: post #14

Instead of dowloading from Sourceforge (loaded with ads and its own devious 'installer'), CNET, Download, etc, there are no-crapware alternatives that offer more management tools as well (remembering your list of apps across machines, automated updates, discoverability): Ninite: nice, simple, installer: just select apps and let the installer do it all for you. AllMyApps: all the apps, no crapware (at least for now).…

A nice list. How long they're all around? I still can't shake the feeling that it's only a matter of time before Moloch gets to them and they'll start serving crapware like any others. I'd love to be wrong on that.

Ninite is quite good; I've been using it for years. At one of my old jobs (a local PC repair shop), we were even in the process of switching our custom install script to a Ninite package.

Chocolatey used to mostly be OSS stuff, but it looks like they've expanded with some nerd-favorite proprietary stuff now too. The list is also moderated, so that's a good sign.

Re: What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps

#78

Post by cturhan »

mxfh wrote: post #37
apetrovic wrote: post #27

Microsoft dropped the ball with lack of App Store. With all app store's drawbacks, that's the place where regular user can pay easily without thinking will someone steal his/her credit car number, the place where applications should be harmless, and the place where (and this is important) the user can compare prices between similar applications. Windows doesn't have the app store. And nobody (read: very, very small p…

Windows 8.x+ has an app store, but sometimes I think even Microsoft doesn't know it exists by all the crap and impostors it's listing in it. here are some common search terms: antivirus: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/search#q=antiviru... ccleaner: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/search#q=ccleaner...

Windows store is not a real store which you can download regular windows apps. I think they only want to use it for metro apps and I think their functionality are far from native apps.

Re: What Happens When You Install the Top Download.com Apps

#80

Post by pjc50 »

iSnow wrote: post #51
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #41

And this is why Apple created Gatekeeper and made the Mac OS X App Store so ridiculously onerous for developers[1]. The software world is, for all intents and purposes, a thin sheen of gold flecks and diamonds atop a veritable cesspool of shit. You can just imagine the conversation at 1 Infinite Loop: Marketer: The Panic guys are considering pulling out of the App Store. Maybe we should reconsider our App Store strat…

Ironic, considering that Apple did exactly the same, when you installed QuickTime on Windows. They tried to trick you into installing iTunes and Safari and set them as default apps. Also, it stinks that Apple has nailed iOS that shut that even as a knowledgeable user you are not able to bypass it. They did not yet dare to do the same on Mac OS, but who knows when that comes.

Apple are quite happy to trash another company's OS. The Windows iTunes experience was terrible: it ate resources, was opaque in operation, didn't always sync properly and could occasionally wipe your devices. It used to be required for OS updates.

The "nailing shut" is an increasing problem for anyone that believes in a free market in software. Which isn't helped by all these sites shipping value-negative software.

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