Mandrake Linux 9.2, Adware Version

WTF!! by Sp4c3+C4d3t · 2003-09-12 02:43 · Score: 3, Insightful

One of the reasons I use Linux is to avoid ads and spyware. Now if I choose to use Mandrake, I can only avoid spyware... but for how long? I think I'll just stick to Slack, like I have for the past few years.

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Happy New Year, it's 1984!

Re:WTF!! by ultrabot · 2003-09-12 02:47 · Score: 5, Insightful

One of the reasons I use Linux is to avoid ads and spyware.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to look elsewhere during installation.

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Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
Re:WTF!! by aaribaud · 2003-09-12 02:50 · Score: 5, Insightful
Ads will appear in three places:
- - install: do you install every day?
- - screensaver: install a non-mdk screensaver.
- - browser: reconfigure browser.
You don't even have to bother doing it yourself; just wait for someone to do it all and then rpm -ivh noads-1.0mdk.rpm. Unless it's a .deb, of course. :)
Re:WTF!! by kmonsen · 2003-09-12 02:50 · Score: 4, Insightful

This is only in the download version. You could (GASP) try to pay for a version and get it ad free. I am quite sure you are exposed to ads in your life anyway, a few more during installation is not going to hurt that much.
Re:WTF!! by perly-king-69 · 2003-09-12 02:54 · Score: 5, Insightful

Really. How far does this 'avoiding ads' fetish affect your life?

Do you close your eyes and put your fingers in your ears when watching the TV, in case any ads get you?
Do you choose routes which avoid all billboards?

MDK are in financial trouble, and need to raise funds. This seems to be a perfectly sensible way of doing it/

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This sig is inoffensive.
Re:WTF!! by alienw · 2003-09-12 02:54 · Score: 5, Insightful

Come on. Advertising during the frigging install is one thing, spyware is a completely different thing. Don't group the two. I use Mandrake, I like it, I wouldn't mind if they got a few extra bucks. The install is pretty boring, so some ads there would not hurt at all. As for spyware and stuff like that: I know quite a few developers at Mandrake, and they would not tolerate that.

As for Slack: that's a pretty barren distro as compared to Mandrake. Clearly, it does not take as much resources to develop it, since it doesn't have its own graphical installer, nice config tools, etc. They are two different products intended for different audiences.
Re:WTF!! by kpharmer · 2003-09-12 03:44 · Score: 2, Insightful

Just because advertising is ubiquitious doesn't mean that it's mentally healthy to listen to messages telling you / manipulating you into believing that life would be better if you spent money on their widget.

Nor does the ubiquity mean that lies and exaggerations aren't deceptions. They are. It's ugly.

Life is *far* simpler without TV, without commercial radio, and away from billboard-infested roads. Try living that way for a while - you find yourself far less defined by what you own.

Needless to say, I won't consider use of an advertising-supported product.
Re:WTF!! by stephens_domain · 2003-09-12 04:25 · Score: 2, Insightful

Agreed.

The thing is, advertising is not bad by its nature. I want to know about products that I would want to know about. (bad logic, I know).

Rules for advertising:
1) Don't be overly intrusive. An ad during an install is fine, just don't make is a 30 second video that extends the install time.
2) Make a reasonable attempt to target your audience. Show me something that I will find interesting, informative, or amusing.
3) Make a reasonable attempt to not offend me. You don't know who will see this, keep it at a PG level.

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Re:WTF!! by brassman · 2003-09-12 05:35 · Score: 2, Insightful

I keep hoping for better from Mandrake -- we need competition for RedHat. But the first box set I bought from them (at a computer show, but close enough to retail) had a dead disk.
So I contact them: "Oh, take it back to the store." Running score: -1.0
Ran into a mobo that wouldn't boot RedHat -- Mandrake to the rescue. Score: 0.0.
Tried to install bittorrent on RedHat -- no go. Mandrake to the rescue. Almost kewl; bt is not what it was cracked up to be. Score: +0.5
Seems RedHat's $60/year/box deal will soon be history. Downloaded Mandrake 9.0, crossed fingers... Nooooo, KDE on XFree 4 is Utterly B0rked. Score to date: -0.5.

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"Ain't no right way to do a wrong thing."
Re:WTF!! by jirka · 2003-09-12 05:37 · Score: 2, Insightful

Have you noticed that you're posting this on a site that's advertising based? And you can pay to not have advertising? You should stop reading slashot! And stop posting here. Oh well, maybe my expectation that slashdot comments should be guided by logic is too much to ask.

Now you could say that you can use some software to avoid the slashdot ads. Well, you can also install a different screensaver and change the default page and bookmarks to avoid mandrake's ads. So if you do nothing you get ads on slashdot, and if you do nothing you get ads on mandrake. Now why exactly is it ok for slashdot and not for mandrake? Logic, logic, logic ... that damn logic again.

Interesting by Archangel+Michael · 2003-09-12 02:44 · Score: 5, Insightful

However, I can see the many of Slashdot crowd crying over this intrusion of commercialism, but this seems like a reasonable way to try and recoup the costs of developing and distributing Linux products.

This keeps Linux "Free as in Beer" and "Free as in speech" at the same time. And what is wrong with that?

--
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.

Re:Interesting by atomicdoggy · 2003-09-12 02:51 · Score: 2, Insightful

Why can't they have it both ways?
Re:Interesting by The+Old+Burke · 2003-09-12 02:54 · Score: 3, Insightful

And its kind of wrong to name this as "adware".
Adware has traditionally beeen used to describe intrusive and forced advertising that you did not ask for and did not want. Typically bundled with crappy P2P software, dialers, spyware and other malware.
The term "advertising" is better suited for describing this Mandrake distro commercials.

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Proud patriot and republican voter.
Re:Interesting by Jellybob · 2003-09-12 03:37 · Score: 2, Insightful

My guess is: absolutely nothing.

However most people who want to a buy a boxed copy of Linux are doing it for one of two reasons.

1. They want the support, or don't trust "something free".

2. They want to support the company, and get something in return for it.

Neither of those people are going to be interested in a (possibly trojaned) home-brew ISO.
Re:Interesting by Rinikusu · 2003-09-12 03:50 · Score: 4, Insightful

Maybe the reason people aren't buying boxed sets and TShirts is because there's not marketing/advertising. Seriously, how often have you seen a Debian or Mandrake ad anywhere? Sure, there are Mandrake T-Shirts (I think) and various other distro T-Shirts around, but the key is variety and to overhaul your line-up regularly.

Let's compare with the Independent music industry, shall we?
It's a well known fact that many people who like bands and see bands live tend to wear band-related T-Shirts. Through sales of T-Shirts (and CD's, incidentally), a lot of these bands can afford to tour the country without having to resort to sleeping on lice-infested punk houses. But, what convinces people to buy T-Shirts from the Band rather than from, say Hot Topic?
1) Price. You can usually get the TShirt at the show for $10-12, usually no tax (cash transaction). The mall will cost you $15-20.
2) Knowledge that the band will get most of the proceeds drives many of us to buy at the shows.
3) UNIQUENESS. If the band is selling the same TShirt you can buy at the store, then you won't get nearly as many sales as if you come out with "unique" Tour T-Shirts. Conventions (sci-fi and otherwise) have caught on to this, as well. By buying the "unique" T-Shirt, you now have "bragging" rights. When people say "Did you go see Hatebreed last year" you can point to your T-Shirt and say "You bet your ass I did." It's kinda a reminder of the experience, you know? After all, music sometimes isn't just about the music, live music is also about the experience. A $10 T-Shirt can go a long ways towards bringing back fond memories.

Now, how does this help with distros?
One thing I see is that Linux people like to give shit away. Sure, free shit is fun and bands give free shit away, too. Stickers, buttons, etc. But, generally, the free shit entices you to buy something later, be it a CD, T-Shirt, or other buttons and stickers. If you go out to live shows enough, you'll find "merch" tables where bands ply their wares. I think the computer world, they're called "Schwag" tables, and the stuff is generally free.
Linux distros (whether it be a company or a gang of guys doing it in their spare time) who represent themselves at trade-shows, conventions, meetings, or whatever, should be conscious of this. When you setup your table, make sure you have something for the person to take home with them. Have some stickers (make them unique!), TShirts, or whatever. Just because Linux is free doesn't mean your TShirts have to be, but be reasonable. You're cutting out the middlemen, so price accordingly. Have some "official" CD's for sale, stickers for a couple bucks, whatever. The idea is to come up with new designs and get your customers caught up in the "Do you have that cool Debian sticker in blue vinyl with a picture of Daryl McBride getting assfucked by Ron Jeremy?" cycle (take a look at Pokemon and Magic: TG). Sure, they're just trinkets, but they serve to help build a community (nothing warms my heart more than to see a big Debian sticker on the back of a car), gets advertising out there (and every "sale" to linux is a win for the entire linux community, regardless of the distro), and is a great way for developers to meet and greet their users at shows. See Apple when it comes to building fanatical fan-bases, it really works (TM).

I'm sure there's a lot of guys who already do this. I don't know because I've never been to any sort of Linux-Con, so please forgive me if I'm treading familiar ground for some of you. But, if you currently don't do this for your distribution or project, maybe it's time to take a step back and examine what you can do to get more support, users, or even money. :)

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If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
Re:Interesting by Rinikusu · 2003-09-12 03:54 · Score: 2, Insightful

Dammit, I missed some points..

The idea about TShirts with Linux continued:
Don't just give people the same TShirt they can buy at Thinkgeek or that comes with your distro. I've got a Progeny Linux T-Shirt and it's cool and all, but if I went to a tradeshow and (say they were still around, mkay?) they gave me the same T-Shirt, well, meh. You've got to keep cranking out new designs (a couple a year is fine, though), design new case badges, stickers, posters, hell, I'm sure CD artwork would go a long ways to providing a couple more bucks in the coffer. Just be creative and have fun with it and hell, I'm sure there's a few artistically inclined people out there who would love to have a more active role in the developer's community even though they can't code. This could be their way of "giving back".

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If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
Re:Interesting by leviramsey · 2003-09-12 04:35 · Score: 2, Insightful

Licenses.

The boxed sets and the download edition are already different, as the boxed sets include non-Free software (Acrobat Reader etc.), while the download edition is 100% Free Software.

As a result, since there's material on the boxed set that is not legally redistributable, you can't simply make an ISO and post it (at least not legally). You could however, create your own CD images that remove all non-Free packages and edit/regenerate the various media description files to reflect this change.

wasn't it proven? by Comsn · 2003-09-12 02:45 · Score: 2, Insightful

that advertisements cant run a website buisness? the whole dot com thing didnt teach any lessons, huh?

it would be funny to see ads for microsoft software on there tho...

Re:wasn't it proven? by Galvatron · 2003-09-12 03:31 · Score: 2, Insightful

You're right, that's why Google went bust when the dot com boom ended. Wait, no they didn't. Ad revenues aren't anywhere near where they were at the height of the dot com boom, but that doesn't mean you can't make a few bucks off of adverstising.
I suspect that this is probably mainly to cover bandwidth costs and the like. I think Mandrake knows that they'll never make much money off of downloaders, but they can at least stop them from being a net drain.

--
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD

I can't help but think... by AppyPappy · 2003-09-12 02:45 · Score: 3, Insightful

This is bad news for Mandrake. Ad revenues are spotty at best according to people that I know who rely on them for their websites. What next? Back doors so advertizers can see where we surf?

It's a great dist but I'd hate to see it become the Juno/Netzero of dists.

--

If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem

recompile by inepom01 · 2003-09-12 02:45 · Score: 3, Insightful

Won't this only work until someone recompiles any and all apps that have the ads in them? How long before packages appear with advertisement-less binaries?

as supported free software by fowlerserpent · 2003-09-12 02:46 · Score: 5, Insightful

I worry that opensource software will become advertiser supported. I don't think its likely though. It is however an excellent revenue stream. It is advertising that keeps media of virtually all types so inexpensive to consume. The best thing is, the software is opensource. We can just remove the ads.

Just Another Reason... by notsewmit · 2003-09-12 02:47 · Score: 1, Insightful

why I'll be using SuSE or Red Hat from now on. You had to know there were problems with the company's financials when they took the stock information off their main page (that and the stock price had dropped below $4.00)

Aargh! by Anonymous Coward · 2003-09-12 02:47 · Score: 0, Insightful

Mandrake used to be such a fine distro, but this will *definately* make me switch. As a student I can't afford following every release, but still like to keep up with the developments. Adware is *not* the way to go. One of the greatest things about having a Linux desktop is using programs without the annoyance of ads, i.e.: I use Licq for my ICQ messaging, which is 100% ad-free. On the Windows platform there's the official ICQ client, which is filled with crap!

Mandrake: don't go the Microsoft way.

Re:Aargh! by grub · 2003-09-12 02:57 · Score: 1, Insightful

Mandrake used to be such a fine distro, but this will *definately* make me switch.

Oh, don't overreact. Do you really sit there breathing through your mouth while staring at the screen intently during an install?

Start the installation, go get a beer and chill out man.

--
Trolling is a art,

Anyone see this coming? by Rinikusu · 2003-09-12 02:50 · Score: 3, Insightful

Struggling company
Needs revenue badly
Sells out to the man

More seriously, while I might have issues with ads in my screensaver, I don't see any problems with seeing ads upon installation. The way I look at it is the way I look at not blocking ads on my favorite websites (like /. and arstechnica): If me looking at an ad for a moment (actually, I ignore them, but they count ad-load, right?) helps them pay for the sites that I use, then I don't mind at all unless they're purveyors of the evil popup(). If seeing a few ads upon installation allows them to pay for full-time Linux developers who are releasing their software to the community, then it's a small "inconvenience" to pay for so-called greater good.

I know, there's a giant anti-market bunch out there that are going to jump up and down and scream about how Linux isn't about making money or whatnot, but frankly, I like the idea of someone getting paid to do something they love (work developing Linux and Linux applications) with a somewhat benign method of securing funding. Now, the day they start installing spyware...

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If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai

Relax all by Anonymous Coward · 2003-09-12 02:55 · Score: 2, Insightful

Ads, if that can bring them revenu thats good with me, remember the code is still open if you want to remove the ads and all this stuff just do it and stop complain about it!

Re:Where does this end? by stratjakt · 2003-09-12 02:57 · Score: 3, Insightful

Subsidized? Why bother? People pay top dollar for the priviledge of becoming a walking billboard for Abercrombie & Fitch and the like.

People plaster their cars with those same NASCAR stickers. Geeks plaster their computers with "Powered by AMD!" or "Intel Inside".

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I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!

Re:Where does this end? by Moeses · 2003-09-12 03:01 · Score: 4, Insightful

I am reminded of an old poem, I don't know the author:

I think I shall never see
A billboard as beautiful as a tree
Indeed unless the billboards fall
I'll never see a tree at all

Adware Mandrake? Why not? by acidvoid · 2003-09-12 03:02 · Score: 2, Insightful

Of course this will be unpopular, but it's not exactly a bad idea.

How many Mandrake installations are the free download? They make no money of those, this way they can make some money on the free download installations also. This is, imho, better than only offering the older version for free download, this way you can have the latest always!

It's just a few ads to ensure you can still get it all for free.

Let's just hope they don't just allow any idiot to advertise.

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NetNewsWire into Yojimbo!

Re:How difficult is removal by Anonymous Coward · 2003-09-12 03:04 · Score: 1, Insightful

Yea, I wonder how difficult it is to delete some bookmars, change your screensaver and your browsers start page...

Good! by DroopyStonx · 2003-09-12 03:05 · Score: 2, Insightful

As much as we like Open Source and our Linux distros, they need to get their money from somewhere.

Let's face it, of all people actually using these distros only a FRACTION of them have actually purchased the packaged software/support or have donated money to them.

--
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!

Mandrake 100% free Software by phoxix · 2003-09-12 03:07 · Score: 5, Insightful

In case you didn't know, the 3 disc downloadable edition of mandrake is 100% free software. The guys at mandrake worked very hard to make it so.

I suspect that 9.2 will be 100% free as well. In such an event, "spyware" is simply *NOT* possible on the distro.

As for the ads .... lets just hope MDK comes to its senses :^)

Sunny Dubey

Re:Mandrake 100% free Software by edwdig · 2003-09-12 05:20 · Score: 2, Insightful

I suspect that 9.2 will be 100% free as well. In such an event, "spyware" is simply *NOT* possible on the distro.

Sure it is. For example, they could make their software update tool send your Mozilla history file when it checks for updates. Or they could just modify Mozilla to send them information. Like how the search feature in Netscape goes thru Netscape's servers before going to your configured search engine.

You've got 3 cds worth of compiled code. How long will it take you to go through their code and verify that they didn't include spyware somewhere.

Or even worse, how do you know that the binaries that gave you *really* were made with the source they claim it is? They could be giving you a version of Mozilla that includes spyware, but have removed the spyware from the source they distribute. Yes, that would violate the GPL, but hey, if they don't get caught it's all good right?

That said, I'm currently using Mandrake 9.1 and don't think that they would do anything like I just mentioned. Just saying that it's possible.

Re:Disgusting precendent... by alienw · 2003-09-12 03:07 · Score: 4, Insightful

First, SuSE is commercial. YaST is NOT open-source or free. You can't download SuSE for free (except for some castrated version). Second, YaST blows. If you actually like it, you haven't worked with it enough. The thing is incredibly buggy. It works great -- 70% of the time.

Also, note that if you actually _buy_ the distro, you won't get advertising.

Re:Moral compass? by joestar · 2003-09-12 03:27 · Score: 2, Insightful

Do you mean they shouldn't accept all Microsoft ads like we see on Slashdot and Linux Today?

Re:Where does this end? by 16K+Ram+Pack · 2003-09-12 03:37 · Score: 2, Insightful

So, you and all the people who don't like it, stump up the $7,000 and get a white screen put on it. Mandrake aren't Microsoft.

Someone's gotta pay for the hosting and bandwidth costs of that software. Personally, I'd rather everyone who installed and liked Linux gave $20 to the distro maker and/or the Open Source Foundation as a contribution. As it seems many (or most) people just leech it, this is the only (and sad) alternative.

This isn't adware. It's not a big deal either. by jensend · 2003-09-12 03:44 · Score: 2, Insightful

1. Non-obtrusive ads during the installation process are nothing new. While it's installing all your thousands of packages, RedHat's installer (since the 7.x series, I think) displays ads for RedHat products and services as well as RedHat and Linux trivia. This is just the first time somebody's displayed third-party ads during installation.

2. Don't like their default screensaver? It's easy to change, it's not like you'll have to hack xscreensaver source or anything. Don't like their default homepage because it says "Welcome to Mandrake Linux, here are some products you may be interested in" instead of "Welcome to Mandrake Linux"? Change it. No big deal.

It's not like there is any software here which has been hacked so it needs to be displaying ads in order to work, which is what adware is. Furthermore, I'm sure Mandrake will be judicious in their selection of ads to display (you won't see X10 ads in Mandrake anytime soon, probably will see ads for co-lo's, linux training and certification programs, Oracle, etc).

Disclaimer: I am not generally a Mandrake user or fan (I've actually only used Redhat and Slack for any major amount of time), I'm just sick of the childish knee-jerk responses here.

Remain calm, all is well... by NLG · 2003-09-12 03:56 · Score: 2, Insightful

Really, this is not a Bad Thing(TM) IMHO. I am using a free downloaded Mandrake 9.1 at this moment, and I wouldn't mind what they are proposing. I am sure I could turn the ads off eventually anyway. Bookmarks are easily deleted, so BFD to that.

I am also using the free download version of Opera to post this. It contains ads in a portion of the browser. To stop them from being shown I would have to shell out $. I love Opera, but I am a tight-a$$, so I can live with the ads. If not, I could always pay or switch to another browser. Just like I could always switch to another distro of Linux if I wanted.

Personally, I think this method of trying to recoup the expenses for free download versions is long overdue in the Linux business model. People like me who want to continue to use Mandrake may now have the incentive to drop the paltry(compared to Windows) sum for a CD or DVD version with no ads.

I also think that if you are the type to roll-your-own Mandrake from the sources, you probably know enough to kill the ads features and still use your fave distro. Once again, no problem. Hell, I know a guy here at work who LIVES for any excuse to recompile/update/tweak. I will ask him for help with this when the final 9.2 sources are available. He uses Slack and Gentoo mostly, but if I offer him caffeine and snack-foods I am sure he would do it. :)

--
Flash is the Herpes of the Internet.
your.opinion > /dev/null

Re:this is fucked. what a waste of power. by Anonymous Coward · 2003-09-12 04:12 · Score: 1, Insightful

If you are not able to disable or change your screensaver, please don't use Linux.

Re:Linux has always been ad free by Croaker · 2003-09-12 04:30 · Score: 2, Insightful

Linux has always been ad free

Really? Go to a shell prompt and type dmesg. Do you see what I see?

ReiserFS core development sponsored by SuSE Labs (suse.com). Journaling sponsored by MP3.com

"sponsered by"!? OMFG! An ad! OMFG! An ad in teh kernel! It's not like Mandrake is going to have popup ads showing up on your desktop, or have permenant banner ads, like ala Opera. It'll take a grand total of 1 minute to eliminate the ads. No big deal.

Distro 'ADs' are bad enough by nurb432 · 2003-09-12 04:58 · Score: 2, Insightful

Like the ones red hat pushes out to you ' try our certification program'.... or ' red hat advanced server' bla bla bla...

They are offensive enough .. there isn't an need to add outside companies crap on my screen too..

I'm so sick of being bombarded by ads 24/7 from every source, be it the road sign every 10 feet, or the 40 mins of commercials for a 60 min tv/radio program, or 80% ad content in my magazine, that I make it a point to NOT purchase a product if see an advertisement for it.

The entire commercialization of the world has gone too far.. you can even rent space on a police car.. or a school bus..

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---- Booth was a patriot ----

and next thing you know.. by joeldg · 2003-09-12 06:51 · Score: 2, Insightful

slashdot will be selling ads...
oh.
wait a minute..

hrm..

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anime+manga together at last.. in real time.

Mandrake Innovation by Idou · 2003-09-12 07:00 · Score: 4, Insightful

I am constantly impressed by the amount of true innovation that has come from one company:

1. urpmi
2. Mandrakeclub
3. rpm voting (yeah, I know Deb was here before, but this is the first time for a Commercial Company to do this)
4. Open Source Sponsor Ads

I am proud to be a Silver member and will gladly give products of Mandrake sponsors priority when I consume (and will look forward to see who is sponsoring my software next time I update my computers. I though the point of Open Source is great code is great, regardless of who coded it or paid for it to be coded under the GPL).

btw, if you are mad about these ads because now you really wont be getting a 100% free lunch when you download MDK 9.2, it is time to move out of your parent's basement and get a job. Good intentions don't pay for dinner (though, Mandrake is getting damn close to that scenario!)

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Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!

Fine (kinda) by gone.fishing · 2003-09-12 07:06 · Score: 3, Insightful

Mandrake has every right to sell advertisments. If it bothers you then you have every right to choose another distro (or "fix" the Mandrake distro).

Frankly, this may be one way to make open source projects actually profitable. Of course, ads are like seasoning, you want to serve up something that isn't too sweet, too salty, too hot... I suspect that Mandrake is well aware that too much will hurt more then help and that this will not be a problem. I also suspect that they are aware of what will be appropriate for their product so you won't get hit with ads for penis enlargment or Microsoft Office.

If this is a success, and part of me hopes it will be, there is a real chance that other projects floundering for lack of financing will do the same thing. This could be a real boost in the arm for open source. I can see games sponsored by McDonalds or an office suite sponsored by Staples but I can't see an MP3 player supported by the RIAA (or at least I wouldn't trust it).

We all know Linux is robust enough to go head to head against Microsoft but Linux lacks a sizeable war chest. Advertising inside of a free operating system could help this in two ways. First is the income. Second is the advertisers desire to see the product successful. This influence could be a great advantage because the sponsor can push the product too!

Imagine Best Buy advertising on a special distro and then making it available free or next to free in all of their stores. The user gets a free O/S and Best Buy has a desktop filled with the latest weekly specials! I suppose Best Buy sells too much MS software for that to happen but you get the picture.

Re:Linux users won't put up with it by Ice_Balrog · 2003-09-12 10:12 · Score: 2, Insightful

OK, this is a major troll, but I don't have any mod points left. And maybe ill get a couple of karma points. OK, probably not... but anyway... 1) It's during the installation process. Tell me, how often do you do that? Anyway, instllations are so boring, I really wouldn't mind some good ads. 2) Nobody keeps their homepage. Thats hardly something hard to change or ignore. 3) Ads in bookmarks are even easier to ignore. Or delete. 4) Only the downloadable version has ads. The others do not. Maybe you should consider buying Mandrake to support them. 5) Contrary to another comment of yours, there are no ads in screensavers. RTFA and you will see that. 6) No one is even close to owning your desktop. There are only ads in the installation, bookmarks, and homepage. Thats nowhere close to someone owning your desktop.

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#include "sig.h"

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Mandrake Linux 9.2, Adware Version

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