SourceForge - how the mighty have fallen

[sophie]

A PSA for anybody who uses SourceForge still - I recently read that they've rolled out something called "DevShare", which is basically something that projects can opt into to have their downloads bundled with adware, monetising the download for the project owners.

I used to trust SourceForge downloads. I won't be able to do so any more. :(

(more information: reddit, article)

Comments

[milkymoon]

Thank you for the warning! D:

[matgb]

FWIW, it's a completely opt in thing, the project I help out on there considered dumping SF completely when it was first heard about, but looked into it and resolved instead to make sure it never, ever happened but to take other hosting options into account.

Awful idea, but it won't be that many projects I suspect.

[marahmarie]

I'm ambivalent. C|Net bundling lord-knows-everything-including-their-own-installer is something I'm still (more) heartbroken over. I used to trust C|Net - I used to love C|Net.

So I downloaded and installed FileZilla as SF suggested and the installer wanted me to sign up for Desktop Weather. Nope, declined. And wanted me to sign up for Win Zip Driver Updater. Nope, declined.

I can't find anything sneaky or hidden or less-than-transparent or wrong going on there, though (people mention it sneaks past firewalls to connect to something called Outcast, and while that sounds nefarious - and while the fact that they *switch installers on you* before download burns my britches - I can't find much else wrong here).

In the meantime, though, if you reeeeeally don't like it, here's USO to the rescue: https://userscripts.org/scripts/show/174951

Tried it out myself by re-downloading the same FileZilla executable - and it works. :)

[jewelfox]

Oh my goddess that's awful.

Guess I need to save my Pidgin installer. >_>; Or use Windows 8 apps for IRC.