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SourceForge: Third party offers will be presented with Opt-In projects only

sourceforge.net

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Re: SourceForge: Third party offers will be presented with Opt-In projects only

#3

Post by gcb0 »

i use one program with frequent updates which distributes from sourceforge.

the installer is a piece of work.

first, it is a fake-installer (that installs nothing) with the actual installer inside. that program first offers you "standard" and "advanced" fake-install options (remember, it install nothing)... when you click "advanced" it now shows 3 checkboxes, checked, that will 1. install a browser toolbar, 2. set your default homepage, 3. set your default search engine. You uncheck them all and click accept (it is also showing a terms and conditions). now it will show something like "also install this tracking or browser or i don't even know what it was?" and there is only the same buttons as before on the fake-installer: "decline" and "accept". Now you have to remember to go against all your knowledge of install wizards and click the left button "decline" to proceed with your desired program only. now you click accept or finish, don't remember, one last time, and the fake-installer forks to the actual installer that you wanted from the beginning.

Re: SourceForge: Third party offers will be presented with Opt-In projects only

#4

Post by userbinator »

gcb0 wrote: post #3

i use one program with frequent updates which distributes from sourceforge. the installer is a piece of work. first, it is a fake-installer (that installs nothing) with the actual installer inside. that program first offers you "standard" and "advanced" fake-install options (remember, it install nothing)... when you click "advanced" it now shows 3 checkboxes, checked, that will 1. install a browser toolbar, 2. set yo…

Opening in 7-zip and extracting the contents manually has worked in the past for me when encountering such things.

(Incidentally, many people don't know that 7-zip can extract installer executables and various other formats too...)

Re: SourceForge: Third party offers will be presented with Opt-In projects only

#5

Post by NamTaf »

gcb0 wrote: post #3

i use one program with frequent updates which distributes from sourceforge. the installer is a piece of work. first, it is a fake-installer (that installs nothing) with the actual installer inside. that program first offers you "standard" and "advanced" fake-install options (remember, it install nothing)... when you click "advanced" it now shows 3 checkboxes, checked, that will 1. install a browser toolbar, 2. set yo…

Find a different program. Refuse to support developers who use such underhanded tactics

Re: SourceForge: Third party offers will be presented with Opt-In projects only

#6

Post by SwellJoe »

This is nice and all, but...the mere fact that SourceForge, an Open Source community site, ever thought it was even close to OK to intentionally distribute malware to anyone under any circumstances (whether with the permission of the developer, or not). AFAIK, by calling themselves and Open Source community site, SourceForge has opted into an ethical obligation not just to their developers who build the software but the entirety of the Open Source software community to protect their users from malicious code.

This episode was indicative of a severe loss of direction and guiding principles.

Re: SourceForge: Third party offers will be presented with Opt-In projects only

#7

Post by captaindiego »

"As a company, we at SourceForge pride ourselves on being highly responsive to our community members and, with that in mind, do our best to respond to all communications and address all concerns in a timely manner."

"Comments are closed."

Re: SourceForge: Third party offers will be presented with Opt-In projects only

#8

Post by hliyan »

In my mind, the damage is already done. And as damage control goes, this leaves something to be desired:

   While we had recently tested presenting easy-to-decline
   third party offers...
That sounds almost like "you should have read the fine print". They could have at least started the announcement with "We're very sorry for the problems caused by our recent..."

Re: SourceForge: Third party offers will be presented with Opt-In projects only

#10

Post by jacquesm »

NamTaf wrote: post #5
gcb0 wrote: post #3

i use one program with frequent updates which distributes from sourceforge. the installer is a piece of work. first, it is a fake-installer (that installs nothing) with the actual installer inside. that program first offers you "standard" and "advanced" fake-install options (remember, it install nothing)... when you click "advanced" it now shows 3 checkboxes, checked, that will 1. install a browser toolbar, 2. set yo…

Find a different program. Refuse to support developers who use such underhanded tactics

It's not the developers of the program that caused this, it's the packagers of the software at the distribution point that do this. Beware where you lay blame in situations like these, sometimes the developers are totally unaware that someone is 'wrapping' their installer with another one, and even when they are aware they are not always in a position to do something about it.
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