Slashdot Mirror
Free Windows Software Without Spyware/Adware
Jem Berkes writes "This week I launched CleanSoftware.org, a resource site with a unique goal: listing free, daily-use software that is free from spyware, adware, and other malicious/intrusive components. With Windows users increasingly believing that free software invariably means adware or spyware, I set out to promote good, clean, free software. Perhaps geeks helping family and friends set up their new computers this holiday can make use of this resource; sticking to clean software is much easier than struggling with never-ending cleanups. To expand my listing, I am also looking for input from the Slashdot readership: what other free, clean desktop software do you regularly use that Windows users should know about?"
www.pricelessware.org ?
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"Just believe everything I tell you, and it will all be very, very simple."
Foobar2000 (audio player) :P
Miranda (instant messenger)
PuTTY (telnet/ssh client. but if you didn't know _that_, then you really have no business being here.)
actually, winamp now has AOD (AOL On Desktop). this puts an icon on your desktop that basically tells you to install and use AOL. this is technically adware, therefor should not make the "clean" list. also, by default, winamp installs its "winamp agent". this can also be looked down apon for "clean" install purposes. there is also "winamp pro" which isnt free.
note: dont think i'm anti-winamp... this is all coming from a guy that has been developing 3rd party plugins and components for winamp 2/3/5 the past 4 years now.
StrokeIt is a mouse-gesture utility that is free for individual or non-profit use.
I use it all the time - once you get used to "right-click+drag-left" as "back" in your browser, you'll feel naked without it.
It's completely trainable - if you want to scrawl out your name to have it open Notepad, you can probably train it to pick up on that.
Otherwise, it comes with preprogrammed gestures that you can assign to all sorts of different commands - you can send keystrokes, hotkeys, even low-level Windows messaging commands to an application.
It's good stuff.
0x0D 0x0A
I think it would be better if the whole thing was compiled into the database with the simple search engine.
:)
The search result should tell four things.
1) whether it's been tested by org members to verify that it's free of the malware.
2) whether it's been tested by org members to verify that it contains certain malware.
3) verified ways to kill/remove malware if user choose to install it(for advanced users only - it could run as news group fashioned forum for best result - open source consunting - geeks for people)
4) it should return empty if software weren't submitted for testing or do not have knowledge for existance of the actual software. This attempt should be counted and used as priority marker for which software needs to be reviewed next.
* SOftware search should require three field (Software name, version, company)
This could be a good pilot project while people wait for the MS to close it's door.
Gurus can get together and develop an open source or clever automated procedures to test the various installation to see if product contains the known malware. It could come in two different method.
1) using QA tools to automate the installation of softwares to clean environment. Script tool + vmware to run install process and counting and comparing the number of running processes before and after to raise the alert.
2) Device a scanning software to scan the setup.exe or entire software package for malware signaure(binary size with matching hash from the file)...
This is very very cool.
Oktokie