rant SourceForge Installer?!?

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

I wanted to download and install FileZilla for a user. So far so good. The download for it is hosted on SourceForge - a safe source you'd think, right?

 

What I saw when running the (oddly named) installer was this:

 

 

followed by 

 

 

 - at this point I went 'WTF?' You have to click the greyed out 'Decline' button for it to install only the software you want. Seriously Sourceforge, what the ****? Since when are you resorting to download.com-like installers to push crapware onto unsuspecting users' PC?

 

Has anyone else seen this kind of installer while downloading applications from SourceForge?

[Knife Party]

mmm, that's a bit strange. I just updated Qbittorrent from there yesterday and never got that installer part  :/ I maybe suspect they are doing it for over the top popular software? dunno, but this doesn't look good at all...

[firey]

that's weird.  Just tested with FileZilla and it downloaded that installer.  However FZServer only gives the regular install.

[Kudos Veteran]

I've been offered a $1,000 a day trial to run similar wrappers on hostr.co, which I immediately rejected because it would make **** of the brand and kill whatever traffic I have coming in.

 

I can't understand the logic sourceforge is using here, are they trying to milk it as much as possible before intentionally killing it?

[+BudMan MVC]

odd -- this seems wrong

[Kudos Veteran]

odd -- this seems wrong

odd.png

 

Looks pretty standard for this kind of PUA wrapper. Sourceforge is likely partnered with an ad network who do the wrapping for them.

[LimeMaster]

7-zip SourceForge link offers the orignal installer rather than SourceForge's installer. It must be an opt-in thing for software developers.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/sevenzip/files/7-Zip/9.20/7z920-x64.msi/download?use_mirror=garr

[+BudMan MVC]

Well its clearly intentional from the filezilla guys, see here

https://forum.filezilla-project.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=30240

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Well its clearly intentional from the filezilla guys, see here

https://forum.filezilla-project.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=30240

Hm. The installer is still provided by SF - I won't be surprised to see more projects using it. :/

[Shiranui]

They could at least make it opt-in.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

ghacks.net has published an article about it now: http://www.ghacks.net/2013/07/17/sourceforges-new-installer-bundles-program-downloads-with-adware/

[manroweb]

Leo Laporte (twit.tv) talked about similar installers on CNET's download.com

It seems some applications are wrapping their installations with crapware.

[+LogicalApex MVC]

As much as I don't like these I can understand why they made the choice. Few people donate to the open source projects they actually use leading to this need to seek alternative funding sources.

 

The lesson here is to contribute to the projects you care about so they don't have to go down this road for financing.