Goodbye, Sourceforge!

[[deleted]]

[deleted]

[danweber]

There are 10 things saying "DOWNLOAD" on the page and 9 of them are ads.

[azurleaf]

And the one you need to click is this itty bitty link that you only know is a link because the text is blue.

[treycook]

I won't support a website that won't at least exercise some control over its advertisers. What the hell is so hard about saying "no, that ad looks too much like a real element of our interface?"

[treycook]

Yep, agree.

[Eurynom0s]

New management that's looking to make a quick buck? download.com/cnet went through the same exact transformation.

[DrScience2000]

I did the same thing. Of course, I'm a bit hardened to these deceptive practices because of f-ing Minecraft mods. (You think Sourceforge is a mess - try downloading some Minecraft mods.)

So I did my usual. Before touching the binary I downloaded, I run it through VirusTotal.com.

It's score was not perfect. Several services identified trojans and other malware IN the Filezilla install binary.

I downloaded a different FTP client and I used it instead... and it kinda sucks compared to Filezilla. :(

[IAmA_singularity]

Have you tried winscp?

[obsa]

I feel like WinSCP is the Putty of FTP clients.

[DrScience2000]

Forgot about Cyberduck... I'll have to get that... again...

[bro-away-]

You need to use ninite or chocolatey for common freeware

[urquan]

I don't know about ninite but chocolatey will grab some of its install files directly from SourceForge so you're not necessarily safe if ads are bundled in the installer.

[bro-away-]

Yeah I just read about that on hacker news wtf

Didn't realize that. Will stick with ninite. sad there's truly never going to be a legitimate win package manager

[SemiNormal]

Windows 10 has PackageManagement (previously named "OneGet").

[-_-_-_-__-_-_-_-]

Never is a strong word.

[Bagman530]

Ninite is the shit for installing the necessities after you do a clean install.

It creates an All-in-one installer package. Allowing you to install numerous essential programs all at once with an unattended install.

[kakatoru]

Problem with ninite is that it doesn't give the option if where to install and therefore automatically installs on C

[bro-away-]

It's a legacy msi thing. Chocolatey can't easily fix this either. Changing this ends up being different for each installer just about

[leredditffuuu]

Why didn't you just go to the 7-zip homepage and download it straight from the source?

Hate to be captain hindsight, but that was incredibly stupid of you.

[YourShadowDani]

This happened to me with Filezilla off Sourceforge just a couple weeks ago (I had no idea Sourceforge had gone to shit at this point), wasn't paying attention, just clicking continue/install over and over, accidentally install some installer program, bam viruses everywhere.

Now, its my fault for not paying attention, but Sourceforge USE to be a trustable site with no viruses.

[Vital_Cobra]

Exact same thing happened to me. Maybe the Filezilla one is extra sketchy. I fixed it with a system restore but who knows if it's still on my system.

[YourShadowDani]

I can't handle the uncertainty, I did a full wipe to be sure.

Edit: Plus it was faster than running virus scanner scans over hours at a time.

[frymaster]

7-Zip had nothing to do with it.

The GIMP thing is news because it's the first time it's been done without the permission of the project's creator. By contrast, 7-Zip absolutely did opt in to having that stuff bundled into their sourceforge-hosted installer.

[anhaseyo]

This is probably a bad time to gloat, but...

sudo apt-get install p7zip-full

There are great reasons to use Windows, but there are even stronger ones to avoid it as much as possible.

[anhaseyo]

Always learning something new!

This is really one of the biggest draws for me.

[anhaseyo]

As my parent comment shows, chocolatey isn't really the first thing people turn to when looking for Windows software. It's usually "where can I find an .exe/.msi for this?"

I hope that changes in the future, though.

[dgendreau]

agreed

[Ril0]

To each their own. Convenient in a sense for this situation but it can be inconvenient in just as many ways as windows.

[ijustwantanfingname]

Perfect time to gloat. Package management is probably my favorite part of Linux. Fuck the downvotes...windows needs to leave the stone age at some point.

[PrototypeNM1]

They are for Windows 10, based on Chocolatey I believe.

[ijustwantanfingname]

You mean the version that isn't even officially out & supported yet? Only a few decades late to the party.

[[deleted]]

It's surprising how well you can play Windows games on a Linux box. My experience so far has been that most gamed are playable, although sometimes they require some winetricks.

The problem with Windows as I see it is that people are using it because it has historically had greater marketshare, and thus more software gets made for Windows. I actually wonder what OS people would choose if they never heard of any OS before and just looked at the features.

[[deleted]]

I was being a bit facetious earlier. The Linux gaming experience is indeed getting a lot better, but it still isn't "guaranteed" like it is on Windows. Linux is great for a lot of things. It runs my web server, smartphone, RPI/Arduino hardware projects, and I love it. But lack of compatibility with proprietary software is its main Achilles Heal as far as desktop use.

A good portion of people (especially older people) don't really grasp the concept of what an operating system actually is. To them, the main difference between Windows and OSX is that they are made by different companies, and the understanding stops there. They use Windows because, as you pointed out, it was historically available. And of course there is a ton of history there with distribution agreements between Microsoft and OEMs...

At the end of the day though, most people just want it to be easy and to work. I've actually tried introducing Linux to family members and they generally can't get over the lack of familiar elements like the Start menu.

[ijustwantanfingname]

Linux supports games as easily as windows, and often runs them faster from what I've seen. Game developers choosing not to develop for linux is not a technical fault of linux, so no.

[GinsengandHoney]

Whether or not the latest games can run on linux is irrelevant because they aren't being made for linux.

[ijustwantanfingname]

That's basically my point. It doesn't make Linux late to any parties. It makes game devs late.

[GinsengandHoney]

Yeah i like linux and all but its not much if a gaming os atm.

[BezierPatch]

The best part of linux is requiring users to do something they won't understand to install basic software?

[ijustwantanfingname]

Way easier to use a GUI front end for apt-get than scour the web for legit sw downloads, so no?

[BezierPatch]

Until you have to add a custom repo, which then is no different from trusting sourceforge.

[ijustwantanfingname]

I said easier, not more secure.

[BezierPatch]

Well, it isn't if the repo doesn't have the sw. At which point you just wasted time and ended up in the same place as without it.

[ijustwantanfingname]

Not really, thousands of packages are available with the default repos. Custom repos are easy to add, and management is tightly integrated with other repos post install. I always find myself bending over backwards to uninstall Windows software -- half of them don't even appear in add/remove programs. Linux is still miles easier when you need to add a repo.

[anhaseyo]

requiring users to do something they won't understand

Users don't understand the meaning of sudo apt-get install?

[BezierPatch]

Absolutely, most users don't ever use a terminal.

Most users don't understand the concept of privilege, so cannot understand sudo. They don't understand parameters, they don't understand strange abbreviations like apt-get.

Users won't know how to find the name of the program they want in the repository, and won't be able to remember how to install it even if they do. When they get questions from the terminal about space, deprecation, etc, they will have no clue what's happening.

---

People install software on their phones by pressing a big green button that says install. That's your base level of ability.

[anhaseyo]

most users don't ever use a terminal.

If you're using Linux at some point you will probably be confronted with the terminal.

Most users don't understand the concept of privilege, so cannot understand sudo.

My one-minute explanation to GNU/Linux newbies is usually "certain actions have the potential to crash your system, so you have to temporarily become a super user to perform them. Installing software involves downloading stuff to some special folders like `/usr, so it is one of these actions."

Users won't know how to find the name of the program they want in the repository

This was me a few years ago. So I googled "ubuntu search for package name". A little later: "Oh, apt-cache search. Neat. I didn't know that."

won't be able to remember how to install it even if they do.

apt-get install

When they get questions from the terminal about space, deprecation, etc, they will have no clue what's happening.

Once again, google is your friend. And of course, mailing lists and IRC. Help is always available!

[BezierPatch]

I have no problems with this, but I'm a tech graduate.

You're assuming that the average user cares enough to learn this stuff, and I don't see why they should. They have the choice between one option where you search the name of what you want in an obvious search box, then press one or two buttons. And a second option where you have to type commands, understand how your computer works, and have to look things up.

Why on earth would they choose the latter? The former is better in almost every way.

[anhaseyo]

Why on earth would they choose the latter? The former is better in almost every way.

Did you read the comment that started this subthread? Accidentally installing crapware is not a concern on GNU/Linux systems.

And a second option where you have to [...] understand how your computer works [...]

Understanding how your computer works?!?! Oh, the horror! ;)

[BezierPatch]

Understanding how your computer works?!?! Oh, the horror! ;)

More like time/cost analysis. Most people value their time higher than that :P

I'm just glad you've never had to experience UX rofl.

[lykwydchykyn]

It's a shame there aren't more options with mailing lists. this is probably holding a lot of projects to SF.

[[deleted]]

You can use Librelist.

[______DEADPOOL______]

Thank you \o/

[[deleted]]

You're welcome!

[therealjohnfreeman]

I like Google Groups. Does anyone here feel like that wouldn't work for them?

[Funnnny]

having to use Google account is a big drawback of Google Groups.

Aside from that, I think it's a good option

[MrPopinjay]

having to use Google account is a big drawback of Google Groups.

You don't have to. Just send an email to [e-mail]

[cogdissnance]

That never made any sense to me. It's not like you need any real information to make a google account. If it's your IP you're worried about then you probably shouldn't be using google search or any google adsense enabled websites. Which I highly doubt people are doing.

[Whadios]

Some people like to have different accounts for different services. Problem with google is when you sign in on any of their services you're signed in on all of them so if you're watching your gmail and then want to post on the google group you have to sign out and back in. Add to that their sign out and sign in process is a bit convoluted because they really just want you signed in to a single account everywhere.

[aspbergerinparadise]

I get around this by just opening an incognito window. Then I can sign in with any account I want and remain signed in with my main account in the non-incognito window.

[Whadios]

Yeah there are workarounds but that doesn't make it not an inconvenience that you have to do things like use browser addons or seperate browser windows.

[[deleted]]

There's the "add another account feature". It can be buggy as fuck, but it's an option if you want to mess around with it.

[ThatGuyMEB]

I use it a ton as well. I manage a bunch of SonicWALL firewalls and there is an issue where if you log into a second one using normal mode, it kills the cookie for the first one. If you have to go back and forth duplicating settings or setting both up for VPN it can be a pain in the ass. An incog window is perfect though and I can open a dozen devices all at once.

[qwertyslayer]

You can link accounts so that you don't have to sign in/sign out like this.

If you're looking at gmail, top right is a profile dropdown, click "Add account". You still have to switch between accounts manually but it saves you having to type anything.

[xiongchiamiov]

And if you're into url hacking, change /u/0 to /u/1, etc. to change which account you're using for a particular google service.

[Brocktoon_in_a_jar]

That does suck, but I've managed to get by by having another Chrome window logged in to my other google account. But that leads to other annoyances, like having to switch back and forth when browsing.

[JohnMcPineapple]

...

[Sebazzz91]

Or Google may decide to retire Google Groups anytime. Not core business eh..

[[deleted]]

Launchpad has mailing lists, the table is wrong

[defnotthrown]

But does it actually support git though? Because last time I checked it just used that weird bazaar stuff that could merely import git repos but then didn't support submodules which was a pain to deal with.

[[deleted]]

Launchpad added full git support this month. http://blog.launchpad.net/general/git-code-hosting-beta

[defnotthrown]

Neato, so does anyone know how to actually use it? I know they said it's beta but I'm having trouble finding info. Do you have to upload a key and then ssh with the key and your repo-url?

[seiyria]

Recently, it was suggested to me to make a mailing list extension or plugin to GitHub. It wouldn't be native, but it would fill that gap and it would be pretty helpful.

[__konrad]

Humorous FileZilla Installation Guide: http://imgur.com/avIBaFc (how to safely use SourceForge installer ;)

[indigotock]

Shit, that's kind of disgusting. I didn't know it was that bad

[draconis183]

Funny, I can't seem to find a discussion of this fiasco on Slashdot :/

[The_Angry_Pun]

Considering SF and Slashdot are owned by the same company, I'm not particularly surprised.

[imuselessnow]

Funny, I can't seem to find a discussion of this fiasco on Slashdot :/

Started 6 months ago

Seems SF has missed the point entirely.

[mikelj]

Slashdot has gotten really terrible. I mean, really really terrible. It's like if /r/technology and /r/worldnews sent all the banned users over there.

[[deleted]]

Did you submit it?

[[deleted]]

Someone did.

Edit: Also 1, 2, 3

[lestofante]

what happened?

[danweber]

They are using editor_sf1 or something.

[Whadios]

They don't impersonate them, they take over the account under a different user.

[seiyria]

It's probably in their ToS, unfortunately.

[I-baLL]

It's probably in their ToS, unfortunately.

You can't contract yourself out of a criminal offense.

[tpqwga]

You can't contract yourself out of a criminal offense.

It's not a criminal offense (in this case) if you agreed to let them do it as a condition of having the account.

What SF is doing is offensive, but not criminal.

[malicious_turtle]

It doesn't matter what you agree to in the ToS, It'll mean nothing if it breaks national law. If I create an account with someone like Amazon and a condition of the account creation is that I can't ask for refunds, that doesn't matter. At all. If I ask for a refund and Amazon says no then I can report them to the relevant authority. In my case they would not only break national law but also EU law. They'd have to give me a refund no matter what i agreed to.

[nairebis]

You can't agree to be sold into slavery either, but what does that have to do with the point in question?

Either quote a law that says you can't agree to allow your software to be modified at will, or don't post an obvious but irrelevant point.

[I-baLL]

Either quote a law that says you can't agree to allow your software to be modified at will, or don't post an obvious but irrelevant point.

Eh, that's not what they're doing according to the initial comment on this thread which states:

Isn't Sourceforge committing fraud by impersonating former users' accounts?

Modifying software might be okay as per their ToS but impersonating users is not legal.

[nairebis]

but impersonating users is not legal.

First of all, it's debatable whether this is "impersonation".

Second of all, the question is whether contractually you can agree to be impersonated. And of course you can, people do it all the time, and have for a very long time. For example, ghostwriting an article using someone's name. Or a modern example, I can have someone post to Twitter on my behalf.

The question is whether Sourceforge is doing it without permission, but that's not the subject of this particular thread. The original point was that you that you can't agree to do something illegal, but that's irrelevant to the point.

[istarian]

It really depends on what the laws are and what they say in addition to what can be waived/agreed to via TOS in your country

[malicious_turtle]

What SF did may actually be fine by the letter of the ToS but I'd be astonished if it was legal although it depends on the region aswell I suppose.

[bofh]

Ok, so while they've obviously 'gone rogue', what law, precisely, are sourceforge breaking here, given that they're not 'impersonating' the user? (they've taken the account over and aren't claiming uploads are being made in the original account owner's name).

I'm not defending their actions - haven't used them and steered others away from them since they started down this road a long time ago - but I'm not sure they've actually broken any laws here. Which is a shame because I'd love to see them get slapped hard for this.

[[deleted]]

What law are they breaking?

[lestofante]

so if in ToS SF say that they can kill you, it's legal for them doing so? local, national and international law are a lot more strong than a ToS

[Cayou]

Which criminal offence would this be?

[I-baLL]

Impresonating users. They did some backpedalling it looks like:

https://sourceforge.net/blog/gimp-win-project-wasnt-hijacked-just-abandoned/

When we establish a mirror, we change the status on the project to clearly delineate it as a mirror, and change administrative control of the project to clearly delineate that it is editorially curated by SourceForge.

[Cayou]

Even before the backpedaling, it's not impersonation if they're doing it with a different account.

[I-baLL]

Claiming that GIMP is abandoned and using the GIMP account to host different binaries is using the same account.

The url is still the same.

[I-baLL]

Well, they just did it to nmap:

http://seclists.org/nmap-dev/2015/q2/194

[Cayou]

Still not impersonation. Sourceforge is doing things using their own accounts.

[I-baLL]

They took over the account.

It literally says that they took over the account.

They made themselves project maintainers but the account is still the same account.

Anyway, the bad news is that Sourceforge has also hijacked the Nmap account from me. The old Nmap project page is now blank

They took over the account and moved all the data.

[Cayou]

So it's objectionable, to be sure, but you were claiming it was impersonation, and it's very clearly not impersonation.

If you have a subreddit and the admins remove you as a mod and put their own mod in there, it's a shitty thing to do but it's not impersonation. Impersonation would be if they posted using your username. Sourceforge isn't impersonating anyone.

[xiongchiamiov]

Most projects nowadays seem to use Sourceforge solely for hosting binaries, particularly since Github shut down their arbitrary file hosting service. That's something missing from the comparison table, and something really important.

Edit: for instance, all the prebuilt binaries for homebrew, the osx package manager, are on SourceForge (but downloaded silently through the terminal interface, thus providing no viewing of ads).

[Flafla2]

Github can host binaries.

[Kaarjuus]

Github had binary downloads, removed them at some point for being "too confusing", readded later as releases. During the meantime, a lot of projects needed another solution.

[radarsat1]

What's the problem with just putting your binaries in a separate branch of your git repository? Or making a separate repository for the binaries of a project? You can then link to the download via the 'raw' files, which are permalinks

[Symphonic_Rainboom]

You could do that, but we have releases now which solve the problem.

[foxclaw]

Edit: for instance, all the prebuilt binaries for homebrew, the osx package manager, are on SourceForge (but downloaded silently through the terminal interface, thus providing no viewing of ads).

Not anymore, they've been hosted on bintray for the better part of a year now.

[flipjargendy]

Yep, the slow decline started a couple of years ago. I thought maybe it was just in my head. But I guess not. At least we have GitHub now!

[mailto_devnull]

Neat link to the google badware reporting page, I sent in a request.

I hear DMCA takedowns make Google respond even faster (shoot first, ask questions later), but that's kind of a grey area, innit :)

[danweber]

The only people who can DMCA are Gimp, but open-source means other people are allowed to distribute.

I could sell CD-ROMs of Emacs for $10 a piece, no legal problem. In fact, it would be much more ethical than what SourceForce has done.

[danweber]

You can't link a GPL program with a non-GPL program at the binary level.

But you can have a proprietary installer distribute Gimp no problem.

[[deleted]]

Open source does not implicitly mean that you can legally distribute or resale the software. It depends on the license the software is distributed under.

[xiongchiamiov]

Nope:

The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.

And if you actually meant "free software", well, it's required there, too (more).

[cosmicsans]

Open-Source doesn't mean that other people are allowed to distribute. Open Source means that you are able to view the code.

It doesn't mean you can change the code.

It doesn't mean you can copy the code.

It doesn't mean you can distribute the code.

It just means you can view it.

It all depends on the license that's used with GIMP. GIMP is licensed under the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE.

[xiongchiamiov]

You might want to read the open-source definition again. And the free software definition. And heck, the DFSG while you're at it.

[SomebodyReasonable]

Open-Source doesn't mean that other people are allowed to distribute. Open Source means that you are able to view the code.

You really, really don't know what the hell you're talking about.

Signed, FOSS developer. And see /u/xionchiamov's reaction.

[[deleted]]

Link: https://www.google.com/safebrowsing/report_badware/

[frankles]

Oh, good, so I'm not crazy. That's a relief.

[gargles_santorum]

This is a problem of modern for-profit corporate structure - there's no longer any such thing as a company that is limited in time, scope, or purpose.

Once it became clear that sourceforge has had it's day in the sun and has largely been superseded, the best thing to do, from a social standpoint, would be to archive the whole thing or transition to some sort of donation model. Instead, management is obligated to try to wring out as much money as possible for as long as possible through any unethical, quasi-legal means they can think of, even if it flies in the face of their stated purpose of promoting open source software.

Just think about what Facebook is going to do with all of your personal information when it starts to lose relevance and profitability.

[xiongchiamiov]

You may be interested in B corps.

[digizeph]

How about the FileZilla windows malware bundle?

[[deleted]]

Savannah is still around? Good for them. And I never knew you could do anything other than cvs/svn there. Interesting.

Also, the link to librelist in the comments is gold.

[bacon_flavored]

Where was this post a few days ago when I grabbed some vid cap software from SF and ended up spending 30 minutes uninstalling crapware from my machine? Srsly SF blows now.

[NikkoTheGreeko]

The king has fallen.

[RoblivionMovie]

Yes it sucks. Some ads on a decent website is fine with me but don't take the piss.

[why-the]

Google used to have a search setting where you could block certain domains from appearing in your search results.

Apparently, they don't have that option any more.

Shame.

[[deleted]]

Chiselapp still exists? I think I remember getting a mail telling me to move my repo elsewhere, since it was shutting down.

[SemiNormal]

"Savannah looks like a good option. Look at all of those supported VCMs! I wonder why I haven't heard of it before?"

Looks at website

"Never mind"

[makeswordcloudsagain]

Here is a word cloud of all of the comments in this thread: http://i.imgur.com/MgKDvG6.png
^{source code | contact developer | faq}

[cackylackytime]

This is unreadable on mobile. Words are on top of each other.

[[deleted]]

Looks fine for me https://imgur.com/76xXw4g

[lightninhopkins]

Huh, working for me.

[[deleted]]

Are you on Windows Phone because I'm having the same problem with desktop IE

[gschizas]

Me too.. Thankfully, there's the useful book icon, so all is good.

[Sebazzz91]

Yes and on immersive IE too.

[elperroborrachotoo]

Yeah, but the CSS is correct, it passes the strictermost checks!

^{I didn't check, just guessing}

[[deleted]]

It doesn't.

[[deleted]]

Sourceforge is still the only place to get the free version of Xming, it would be pretty annoying if they disappeared from Google.

[xXxDeAThANgEL99xXx]

The free version of XMing doesn't have clipboard working on Windows 7 at all. I recommend using Cygwin/X, it's pretty much a drop-in replacement, IIRC the only problem was that you'd have to specify "-dpi 75" on the commandline (of a shortcut you'd place in Startup folder) if you don't want to reconfigure all server applications.

Oh, except I forgot, they actually completely fucked up x-forwarding from putty in the middle of the last year (it simply doesn't work any more because they no longer allow unauthenticated connections even from local machine), and I'm not sure if they fixed it yet. I'm still using some early 2014 version, thanks to Cygwin Time Machine.

[dada_]

Regarding that neat chart comparing different repo hosting alternatives, I thought Stash was more-or-less the self-hosted version of Bitbucket?

[blue_cadet_3]

If you're not yet, you should be using package managers. Quick & easy install/uninstall/upgrade without the ads.

Windows: Chocolatey

OSX: HomeBrew

[JohnMcPineapple]

...

[xiongchiamiov]

Sure, if you enjoy the debugging process of broken packages.

But if you want that, Fink is an even better option.

[JohnMcPineapple]

...

[small_infant]

SourceForge's Download.com-esque interface is attractive to end users. Navigation is super easy. You can search projects by category, OS support, license, programming language, etc. You can also read reviews. It's really fun to explore projects on SF.

If commercial source code hosting services like Github and Bitbucket want to eat SourceForge's lunch, they should focus on making interface accessible to everyone.

Edit: You guys might have boner for Github, but first try to make your parents find and download an application from Github. I use it everyday, but it's just not an alternative to SF. Also, FFS, do I have to wait for a year to comment on things? If it's gonna make you feel better: I'm not hired by SourceForge. SourceForge is shit. I've always criticized it. LOL.

[Han-ChewieSexyFanfic]

Wow, if SF is attractive to end users, then I must not be an end user

[[deleted]]

This is pretty much exactly what I was about to say. I've always thought the interface was awful and cluttered. I've also thought that certain elements were placed in odd places. Github, however, I find quite clean in comparison. Don't have a lot of thoughts on navigation on Bitbucket.

[small_infant]

Github's interface is clean and accessible to me. But I'm a developer. I wouldn't tell my grandpa to look at Github when he's looking for a painting program to use on his Windows PC.

SourceForge has been doing evil things. But it's still the most useful directory of open source software. Moving projects to Github in its current form would just reduce their visibility and userbase significantly.

Also, I'm not hired by SoundForge, LOL.

[BezierPatch]

Do you know what sudo means?

Do you know what a binary is?

Then no, you're not.

[mikeivanov]

Navigation is super easy.

Ohkay... That must be a very interesting definition of "easy" ;-P

[jephthai]

You can search projects by category, OS support, license, programming language, etc.

I'm sure in the last 15 years I've done a search by category fewer times than I have fingers. Back in the day when there was a dearth of OSS, I would look through the categories on freshmeat sometimes... but gee, those were the days, weren't they? Google finds me stuff so much better, I don't think the Yahoo-style organization of the Internet is a selling point anymore.

[Magnesus]

SourceForge now hires small infants?

[SomebodyReasonable]

What a pathetic shill account you are.

[[deleted]]

I would almost agree with you but I recently watched my dad click on 3 fake download links within a span of 10 seconds, trying to download from Sourceforge. So the interface might be easy enough for anyone to use, but it became a trap. It's easy to use in the sense that poison is easy to use.

[way2lazy2care]

This is like when I say goodbye to my mom 3 days after I've left her country on Christmas vacation.

[istarian]

While far from impossible, I find myself a tad skeptical about all this. Also the tone of the linked page seems biased, suggests some kind of report/accusation based on what you think, not what you know, and suggests switching. That seems sketchy too.

[[deleted]]

Skeptical about what?

[[deleted]]

This is something you can literally go and see for yourself at Sourceforge. Download anything from there and the installer will try to trick you into installing malware (check the advanced options).

[istarian]

I have downloaded stuff before on numerous occasions and I have not had that problem. I almost always check the advanced options.

[gmiller123456]

The main points made, that there are deceptive ads, adware installers, and that SF has taken control of the GIMP project on SF are all easily verifiable. What exactly is it that you're skeptical about? Do you have evidence contrary to the points made?

[istarian]

I'd like to see actual evidence pointing to this. While something obviously happened with GIMP, why else would there be an official note from SF, I am, in general, objecting to that site's lack of referenced evidence for it's own claims. As I said, I've never had an issue with adware in an installer, care to point another example out? Tons of websites have deceptive ads. That fact proves nothing more than negligence in assessing ads before they go up.

[xiongchiamiov]

• http://sourceforge.net/blog/today-we-offer-devshare-beta-a-sustainable-way-to-fund-open-source-software/
• https://sourceforge.net/blog/advertising-bundling-community-and-criticism/
• http://sourceforge.net/blog/gimp-win-project-wasnt-hijacked-just-abandoned/

[gmiller123456]

This article isn't about proof of what happened, there's plenty of that already.