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GIMP, Citing Ad Policies, Moves to FTP Rather Than SourceForge Downloads

Posted by timothy on from the voluntary-action dept.

Dangerous_Minds writes "GIMP, a free and open source alternative to image manipulation software like Photoshop, recently announced that it will no longer be distributing their program through SourceForge. Citing some of the ads as reasons, they say that the tipping point was 'the introduction of their own SourceForge Installer software, which bundles third-party offers with Free Software packages. We do not want to support this kind of behavior, and have thus decided to abandon SourceForge.' The policy changes were reported back in August by Gluster. GIMP is now distributing their software via their own FTP page instead." Note: SourceForge and Slashdot share a corporate parent.

24 of 336 comments (clear)

  1. BT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Get a torrent up, many of us will seed for the community.

    1. Re:BT by ottothecow · · Score: 5, Insightful
      What's funny about this, is that part of what *sucks* about sourceforge's download pages is that they are littered with the same kind of ads that bittorrent sites have (I know, I know, they can host the torrent from their own tracker, not some pirate thing)

      You get to a download page and there are ads that scream things like "DOWNLOAD NOW", "CLICK HERE TO INSTALL", etc.

      Frequent/savvy users are able to figure this out, but when you tell your parents that they can get this free photo editor, they end up with the same damn crapware on their computer as they would have had if they just went ahead and tried to pirate photoshop. The same thing is true about Paint.Net's download page...on their page, I see two giant colorful "Download" buttons that are actually ads. The actual download link is a standard text link that says "Paint.NET v3.5.11" which takes you to another page that has another giant colorful "Download" button. On that page, the real download links look like fake links...the button says "Download Now DotPDN LLC" which doesn't sound at all like what you want.

      Sourceforge isn't quite as bad...the ads aren't always there, and often they show up on the post download ad-page (the one that says "your download will start shortly" so there if you click them, you often end up with both the file you want *and* the crapware...leaving a 50/50 chance the user will get the right file.

      I get why the pirate sites have these misleading ads (and it probably helps discourage people from software piracy since they try it, get some weird downloader and ad-toolbar instead of the software they were looking for, and then give up)...but when respectable free alternatives resort to the same shady ads? wtf?

      --
      Bottles.
    2. Re:BT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Um, can't the Gimp website put up a link to the torrent, then there'd be no ads.

    3. Re:BT by CastrTroy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Sourceforge has been on a download slide for a while. I tried downloading FileZilla, via Sourceforge, their primary link, and instead of just using the regular installer, it uses a special Sourceforge installer that tries to get you to install other junk you don't need on your computer. If you click around a bit on the FileZilla site, you can fine the link to the bare-bones install.

      That kind of junk you talk about with Paint.Net is exactly why I don't use it.

      I very much support GIMP in using their own FTP server. Of course, nothing stops them from hosting their own bittorent tracker though. Using bit-torrent doesn't mean the torrent files has to go through the pirate bay or other torrent sites.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    4. Re:BT by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I very much support GIMP in using their own FTP server. Of course, nothing stops them from hosting their own bittorent tracker though. Using bit-torrent doesn't mean the torrent files has to go through the pirate bay or other torrent sites.

      They don't even need to host their own tracker. There are some industrial strength public trackers out there:

      PublicBitTorrent
      OpenBitTorrent
      Demonii

      They don't host torrents or anything else, they just provider tracker service. The gimp project would only need to generate a torrent file with one or more of those listed as trackers and then stick the torrent file on their ftp site.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    5. Re:BT by Dahan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      People had been complaining about misleading "download" ads on TortoiseSVN's download page for years, and the maintainer, Stefan Küng, refused to do anything about it, basically saying he develops TSVN for free, so he's entitled to as much ad money as he can get. Even reasonable suggestions such as putting a border around the ad that said "Advertisement" were rejected. I had even offered to donate to the project if he put a labeled border around the ads. While I don't have any problems with him getting ad revenue, I did have a problem with him relying on deception to get it. So, I suggested that anyone who found the ad placement misleading file a policy violation report with Google ("The site makes it difficult to distinguish ads from content."). In response, he killfiled me and banned me from the tortoisesvn-users list. Talk about butthurt :P. But perhaps the reports had an effect, since he did add the border as had been suggested. And I donated 150 euros to the project. And I still think Stefan Küng is an asshole (which I mentioned in my Paypal note to him :)

  2. Good by Sean · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sourceforge is garbage now.

    1. Re:Good by CitizenCain · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How to destroy a powerful brand in 1 easy steps! (SourceForge, not GIMP.)

      And yeah, while SourceForge has been declining for a while now, this is something entirely different from a slow decline... they may as well have taken it out back and shot it. Be quicker, and probably cheaper in the long run too.

    2. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There was probably also a four-fold increase in ads and slashvertisements drawing ad impressions.

    3. Re:Good by Deathlizard · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Just about all download sites are garbage anymore. The only one I find that has no Adware garbage on it is nonags.com, but it's woefully out of date.

      When I got to tell our customers "Don't Download Anything, Anywhere, Anytime" because I can't trust any download site Including the Windows 8 Store, There's an epidemic going on.

      Until AV Programs start getting a pair and flag anything that installs as bundleware malicious, this will not stop, Although you'll never see it because Big Names like Google and Microsoft Both bundle their apps with software.

      --
      In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
    4. Re:Good by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 3, Insightful

      they may as well have taken it out back and shot it. Be quicker, and probably cheaper in the long run too.

      If they did this, they'd just catch a bunch of nerd range. This way, they hack together a cheap and craptacular installer, and then the nerds demand it be shut down. Parent company closes down a money-losing business with the users' blessing.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    5. Re:Good by Nimey · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Pah. Slashdot's been in the shitter for years, it's just that we can still use the periscope and snorkel.

      --
      Hail Eris, full of mischief...

      E pluribus sanguinem
  3. Re:So Brave by Valdrax · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Note: SourceForge and Slashdot share a corporate parent."

    Then, have any of you (the editorial staff) thought to voice a complaint to your parent about being associated with what is widely considered a shady practice?

    --
    If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
  4. unacceptable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This whole installer hi-jacking is unacceptable. "OpenSource" just loose serious credibility.

  5. Re:who cares by hawguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    GIMP can't do CMYK, so WHO CARES??

    The majority of people that do graphics for web, not print?

  6. Lol, note. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Note: SourceForge and Slashdot share a corporate parent.

    Good to know I can blame the decline of two great sites on the same company.

  7. Re:good move by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Corporations, fucking everything for short-term profit .

  8. Re:who cares by NIK282000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It does everything else with 100% cost savings. I'm not paying Adobe near a thousand bucks for 2 features (CMYK and 16bit depth), that I can get by using a few other open source odds and ends in conjunction with Gimp.

    --
    Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all
  9. SorceForge jumped the shark long ago... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...unless you're running an iron-clad adblocker. It's like Vegas on every page and especially for downloads.

    This is why people have been migrating to GitHub and bigger projects have been consolidating into major OSS players that can afford their own servers/presence (ex: Apache, Mozilla, etc). I'm surprised so few established projects use BT as their primary distribution channel considering all you need to do is run a BT daemon on your server to seed it. In the worst case, you use the same amount of bandwidth, while in the best others reduce your load.

    All web companies that act as intermediaries eventually become the ad-infested hell-holes that they replaced as they try to turn greater and greater profits out of their properties. Tucows and most gaming news sites from the late 90s are prime examples.

  10. Re:Good! by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is exactly the reason I stopped using source forge. Which is a shame, because in virtually every other way, it is better than Github.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  11. The SourceForge Death Spiral by benjfowler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Am I the only one who noticed that while once upon a time, SourceForge were great, that it's declining popularity (no thanks to Google Code and Github) and falling website hits forced them to put up more, spammier, scammier ads?

    Then about a year or so ago, they went full-AOL, and the standards of the ads dropped dramatically, with misleading 'download button' ads leading to dodgy downloads; their hits must've dropped further, necessitating even more, even scammier ads.

    Looks pretty much like a tailspin to me. Too bad, because Sourceforge was one of the first and best Open Source hosting platforms at one stage.

    If I were in charge of it, I'd just take it out behind the shed and put it out of its misery.

  12. Dice and some real concrete steps by augustz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I was user 341 at Sourceforge, 14 years ago.
    I always liked the SF.net idea. This is kinda sad to see happening.

    But enough crying over spilt milk.

    * Don't use Dice, don't hire folks using Dice.
    * Move your own projects off sourceforge.
    * If you need a project from sourceforge email them and ask them to avoid the download jacking by moving their project if possible
    * Support other providers who play fair.
    * If you use a website reputation tool, mark sf appropriately.

  13. very bad. Impressed Dice ran an anti-Dice article by raymorris · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I agree with most of what has been said.

    As nasty as that is, I'm pleasantly surprised Slashdot (Dice) ran this. Somebody has character to approve this story. I hope it doesn't get them fired for telling the truth.

  14. Re:So Brave by PhilHibbs · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They are publicising the situation, giving the community the chance to have their say. What's the problem? If I have a problem with my company's policies, I voice them internally and carry on doing my job. I don't publish them on a blog or the company's internet page.