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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

#121

Post by GFischer »

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 DOES have an App Store.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/apps-windows-st...

Edit: it was already pointed out by mxfh.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8878945

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

#122

Post by 300bps »

tdicola wrote: post #6

I had to install the DirectX user runtime recently and was pretty shocked to see Microsoft has loaded it up with lots of crapware. First when you click download from its page at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35 you're prompted to set MSN as your homepage, download the malicious software removal tool, and download IE11 (if you're on Windows). Then after you skip that you get the download and…

Well to be fair, the difference is subtle and depends where you put the emphasis.

From Microsoft it is a malicious software removal tool.

From just about anyone else it is a malicious software removal tool.

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

#123

Post by [deleted] »

kagamine wrote: post #93
girvo wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'll allow that one to be honest. Also, the Malicious Software Removal tool is probably a good thing too, as it's real and from Microsoft, and will definitely help some non-technical users.

Although a better way to deal with this perhaps is for the "Your download is complete, thanks etc" page you see after clicking download to include recommendations from MS with their seal of approval. I would consider that a welcome gesture from MS, bundle-ware not so much.

[deleted]

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

#124

Post by Lewton »

girvo wrote: post #64
markdown wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and download IE11 (if you're on Windows) This has my support :)

Yeah, I'll allow that one to be honest. Also, the Malicious Software Removal tool is probably a good thing too, as it's real and from Microsoft, and will definitely help some non-technical users.

I still think it's bad. In the way that it teaches people that bundling software in installers is something legitimate companies do and therefore makes the general public less skeptical about stuff like this

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

#125

Post by anon1385 »

makomk wrote: post #113
anon1385 wrote: post #105

Download.com is just the beginning of this crap. At least a lot of people now realise that download.com is shady. Google is just as bad as download.com, but people still think of Google as a reputable site. Even in this discussion people are recommending just googling the product name to find a download. Please don't tell people to do that. It's dangerous. If you type terms like 'firefox' into google search much of t…

At least the actual, genuine result is visible without scrolling. A few years Google were paying computer manufacturers to set a special version of Google with more prominent ads as their default search engine. The net result was that if you got a new computer and searched for Firefox using their default, Google-supplied search the genuine result was actually below the fold in some cases.

Interesting. Do you have any more information about that scheme?

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

#126

Post by username223 »

guycook wrote: post #74
zxcdw wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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

pg "investigated" that crapware company a couple of years ago [1], but they still apparently exist, and continue to collect MAC addresses.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5062133

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

#127

Post by RayDonnelly »

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).…

There's also MSYS2, we are on SourceForge, but we'll never bundle or allow bundling crapware with our installer (and we release .tar.xz files for people who don't like installers).

https://sourceforge.net/projects/msys2/

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

#128

Post by username223 »

glesica wrote: post #90
zxcdw wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> Has anybody in HN worked with a company which does this crapware bundling, let alone creating? If anyone here has worked for Adobe (Flash included crapware for a long time), Oracle (Java updates used to or still do include crapware), Google (browser toolbar was crapware), or Apple (Quicktime for Windows attempted to install iTunes and Safari), then yes.

Every sane piece of Mac software: download a big disk image (dmg), mount it, copy the application folder to /Applications. To uninstall, drag it to the trash.

Adobe software: download a tiny disk image, launch the hideous Adobe installer program, give it root, have it download and install God-knows-what to God-knows-where. To uninstall, open a terminal and go medieval on everything with a name containing "Adobe", "Macromedia", "Flash", etc.

Adobe creates the most user-hostile software that is not pure malware.

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

#129

Post by wampus »

dspillett wrote: post #23
TeMPOraL wrote: post #8

> Because when the product is free the real product is YOU. I disagree with this conclusion. Also, I have a related issue with some of the opinions I hear e.g. on HN that confuse me. Many a person says in defense of ads - "but surely authors have to support themselves, otherwise there'd be no site/software", "TANSTAAFL", etc. But this seems to me to be in disagreement with observable reality. What I see is a strong a…

> That's why I also feel no guilt for browsing with AdBlock on I understand the reasoning, but you seem to be taking it to a logical extreme. There are some reputable and useful sites that use ad income, I don't routinely use AdBlock or similar for that reason. If a site annoys me with its ads it gets DNS blacklisted (pointed towards my "you don't want to go there" page via local DNS config. > neither the ads nor the…

I also run a local DNS blacklist that benefits everyone on my network, but I rarely update it since I started using the RequestPolicy Firefox extension. It supports the point of view of "Don't fetch resources from third party domains unless I need them." If a page is broken, I can temporarily or permanently add the missing resource for that domain or globally with a simple click. Denial by default is a much better strategy as it provides some real protection against serious threats like XSS, in addition to thwarting tracking and ads.
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