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“It appears that SourceForge took control of the 'GIMP for Windows' account”

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Re: “It appears that SourceForge took control of the 'GIMP for Windows' account”

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even apache openoffice is using SourceForge for their downloads. There are quite a lot of s/w there at this moment.

OpenOffice has not been relevant for a while; development has moved to LibreOffice. See https://lwn.net/Articles/637735/

They're distributing LibreOffice now too, presumably without bothering to ask for the permission of the actual developers.

Re: “It appears that SourceForge took control of the 'GIMP for Windows' account”

#52
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only issue is that Sourceforge made nice binaries available. Most people have no idea how to use git and/or build their own binaries.

Even before they started adding malware installers, downloads redirected through an extra ad page (and interfered with curl, wget, etc).

SourceForge has worked with wget, NSIS's inetc, etc for at least the last 10 years. We've been using it with PortableApps.com.

Re: “It appears that SourceForge took control of the 'GIMP for Windows' account”

#53
post #14

What are the reasons for people to use SourceForge today? Why hasn't everyone else ( especially major projects like GIMP and Audacity) moved off? Here are some possibilities I can think of, but I'm curious if they're correct: - Mailing list hosting - Non-git repository hosting, for projects that prefer CVS or SVN - Shell account (though it doesn't seem very useful) - Features GitHub has but few others do (binary host…

Is it possible to delete a project on SF? I've looked and can't find any information on it (on SF... haven't googled yet).

Re: “It appears that SourceForge took control of the 'GIMP for Windows' account”

#54
post #44
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could remove all the installers, replace them with a README.txt, and update the website and project description. That said, looking at the top story, I guess they consciously chose not to do that and then things went sour.

Doesn't matter. Someone elsewhere in the discussion found out what they're doing - Sourceforge now has a policy of taking over the project pages of projects that've moved off Sourceforge and running the pages themselves as mirrors (apparently with added extras in the installers): http://sourceforge.net/mirror/ If you remove all the installers, they'll just get them off your website instead. If anything, removing ever…

I wonder if there are any OSS licenses with a legally valid "except for Sourceforge" addendum available.

Re: “It appears that SourceForge took control of the 'GIMP for Windows' account”

#55
post #24

This is precisely for these reasons we stopped distributing VLC via SF.net in 2013. I even wrote about it: https://blog.l0cal.com/2013/05/02/rethinking-vlc-mirrors-inf...

I had those scammy sourceforge links, I guess I haven't been lucky enough to write a project that will scale that big but I'll host it myself until I simply can't afford it anymore. Vlc is great by the way.

Re: “It appears that SourceForge took control of the 'GIMP for Windows' account”

#56
SourceForge made a blog post about the GIMP project here: http://sourceforge.net/blog/gimp-win-project-wasnt-hijacked-...

It appears they switched the GIMP project on SF back to directly downloading the standard GIMP installer, at least that's what I see right now in Firefox at 3:30pm NYC time.

Re: “It appears that SourceForge took control of the 'GIMP for Windows' account”

#57
I think this pretty much explains why this happened, a quote from their parent company here: "2005 - IN AUGUST, WE ARE ACQUIRED BY DICE HOLDINGS, INC., WHICH IS OWNED EQUALLY BY GENERAL ATLANTIC LLC AND QUADRANGLE LLC, PRIVATE EQUITY FIRMS IN NEW YORK CITY." via: http://www.dhigroupinc.com/our-company/default.aspx

Re: “It appears that SourceForge took control of the 'GIMP for Windows' account”

#58
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So...they're claiming to "maintain" projects, and that means turning them into adware? That's so underhanded and nasty that it's difficult to believe. If true, it means SourceForge has effectively become the nemesis of every software developer who ever used their services. And, it means every software developer who cares about software freedom and privacy must move everything off of SourceForge. We host Webmin on SF.…

Abandoned projects and "projects that are not hosted on SourceForge", which appears to include projects that still have a Sorceforge page that's actively maintained if the project has moved elsewhere. So if you move off SF.net, they'll take over your page there and use it to distribute adware-enhanced versions of your software. Incredibly underhanded.

Moving doesn't prevent this or protect users, and it actually would potentially trigger such a takeover by SF.net? So, there is no escape?

I'm really finding this hard to believe. It's just incredible. I mean, I've had a bit of a love-hate relationship with SF.net forever, but it's always been the kind of thing you might have with a bratty sibling (i.e. you wish they were doing more with their lives, but you still love them). This is such a massive betrayal of trust that I can't even swallow it.

I mean, the evidence seems to be there, and more than one major project has reported this behavior, so it's not really something I can just ignore. But, it's also just so horrible. (I'm beginning to become repetitive. I just really find this unbelievably awful.)

I don't know anyone involved in SourceForge, and haven't in more than a decade, so I don't even know who to reach out to for some kind of clarification about WTF they think they're doing. Their mirror page doesn't explain anything about distributing malware in these projects they "maintain", so they're already not being forthright about it.

Re: “It appears that SourceForge took control of the 'GIMP for Windows' account”

#59

SourceForge made a blog post about the GIMP project here: http://sourceforge.net/blog/gimp-win-project-wasnt-hijacked-... It appears they switched the GIMP project on SF back to directly downloading the standard GIMP installer, at least that's what I see right now in Firefox at 3:30pm NYC time.

"Mirrored projects are sometimes used to deliver easy-to-decline third-party offers, and the original downloads are always available."

In other words: "Yes, we take your project and wrap it in an adware installer."

Re: “It appears that SourceForge took control of the 'GIMP for Windows' account”

#60
post #59

SourceForge made a blog post about the GIMP project here: http://sourceforge.net/blog/gimp-win-project-wasnt-hijacked-... It appears they switched the GIMP project on SF back to directly downloading the standard GIMP installer, at least that's what I see right now in Firefox at 3:30pm NYC time.

"Mirrored projects are sometimes used to deliver easy-to-decline third-party offers, and the original downloads are always available." In other words: "Yes, we take your project and wrap it in an adware installer."

Or as I call it: "the download.com strategy." Honestly SF are scumbags.
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