![]() I will spare JohnT of criticism (he should know better) but I think you should worry about your reputation and let the Portable Freeware Collection community worry about its reputation. Just a bit more context since this is a topic that is currently considering how to handle officially for publisher links. I heard through the grapevine that they may be purging publishers that add their own adware as well (DVDStyler, etc) but am not sure about that.Īlso, the note above about the Virus Total scan wasn't in any way a criticism of PFC or the linking. On a semi-related note, SourceForge has discontinued all their adware programs for new apps and mirrored apps. On a related note, it seems FreeFileSync is self-hosting now as FossHub asked them to leave due to the bundleware. On a semi-positive note, though, FreeFileSync is using OpenCandy, which does not install anything if the user selects not to. While the "How To Extract" instructions will bypass the adware, and I can confirm that extracting the files with 7-Zip still works without issue, there is always the risk that some users may download and run the installer without reading the instructions. With FreeFileSync, there's a single installer for local and portable by default. Obviously it's a bit different in this particular app's case as most folks visiting PFC wouldn't be as concerned about whether a local installer had adware because they'd be using the ZIP download. ![]() ![]() We've used that as a distinguisher in whether or not to warn users about a publisher but may alter that in the future as quite a few of the apps we package have adware in their local versions and some like FFS have it in their official portable versions. We do have one for apps like DVDStyler which have, in the past, used adware that's installed even when you've specifically chosen not to. If it helps any PFC folks in their decision-making of how to handle this particular instance, links to as the publisher (and for folks wanting a local version) as well but we don't currently have a warning notification near that link. It should be noted that most of the flaggings are PUPs (Potentionally Unwanted Programs) and not actual malware. They've become rather lax on adware/ malware in general. Quite the contrary, the instructions how to avoid it are hard to find, and the really bad cases, when installation somehow fails for whatever reasons, it did occassionally happen that malware found it's access anway, despite disabled checkboxes.Ī few months back I had also complained to Support about disappearing postings by particularly frustrated users, it was easy to verify and I also had screenshots, but it seems like SourceForge doesn't really care. ![]() It is one thing to be honest about adware, mentioning it upfront. What I particulary dislike about the general handling, is the sneaky, devious way this whole issue is being swept under the carpet. Especially since the author keeps downplaying the issues, posting similar scans that never test the real download and install package, but only components he carefully selects, then declares any finds as "false positives". ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |