4 ms·

I have a feeling he means bundling crap with installers. This has been done for a long time on Windows and not so much on Linux or OSX.

• bmj 14y ago
  Likely because Windows has enjoyed a rather massive installation base, particularly among folks who are not terribly knowledgeable. I'm sure as other platforms become more dominant, we'll see similar shenanigans.
  • bad_user 14y ago
    Having a user base of folks that aren't very knowledgeable is no excuse for abuse. Also, I do not think other platforms can be as plagued as Windows is, because it's a matter of culture and user expectations being driven by that culture. The size of the user base has nothing to do with it. On Windows users wishing to get anything done resort to installing some crap, even for basic things like uncompressing an archive, watching a movie, listen to some MP3 or viewing a PDF or an Office document. Things got better with open-source software that was ported to Windows, but considering that Windows is the dominant operating system, the ecosystem is actually kind of lame. If you want quality software, the few exceptions are some open-source apps and some products being sold by some big publishers and that's it. I have a theory that this is because Microsoft itself encouraged piracy and bundling of crapware, while discouraging indie developers, communities and open-source.
• donniezazen 14y ago
  I have never seen any other package bundled with the one you want to install in Linux.
  • TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
    That's because it's probably made by volunteers and they're not trying to make a profit off you.
    • donniezazen 14y ago
      Also, I think it is frowned upon in open source world.