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What it illustrates the need for is understanding why you're receiving things (which is a pretty vital outside of software, too). If you pay for your product th
by twhb 9y ago
What it illustrates the need for is understanding why you're receiving things (which is a pretty vital outside of software, too). If you pay for your product then you won't see phishing on the download page. If it's a subscription fee, then they're going to make it difficult to abandon or switch away from. And if it's "free", then who knows what's going on - maybe the product will wantonly encourage spending money (advertising), or manipulate you towards a paid service. Or maybe the secret motives are innocuous, like the dev's resume or (very rarely) the common good, but you need to understand that before you know what's coming.
- scarface74 9y agoLook at all of the open source software that is there for the common good, but is still hijacked with crapware by places like SourceForge and Download.com. You can even search for Windows drivers and instead of getting drivers from the manufacturer, you end up with malware from a third party site.
- twhb 9y ago.. and that's the profit model of sourceforge etc. You need to consider all parties involved, of course.
- scarface74 9y agoAnd you expect everyone to know this? Sourceforge caught a lot of tech savvy people by surprise when they first started doing this. What do most non devs gain by an "open system" that a well functioning App Store that forces apps to be sandboxed where the user has to grant permissions individually to apps?