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GIMP, Citing Ad Policies, Moves to FTP Rather Than SourceForge Downloads
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.
Get a torrent up, many of us will seed for the community.
Haven't been impressed by SourceForge's recent policy of late- especially when I unclick the 'free software' offers attached to each download, yet they install anyway!
Sourceforge is garbage now.
then certainly the open source community would appreciate bundled bullshit too!
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
I can't get enough iLivid installs! That and another Ask! toolbar! Sign me up!
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
"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").
This whole installer hi-jacking is unacceptable. "OpenSource" just loose serious credibility.
GIMP can't do CMYK, so WHO CARES??
The majority of people that do graphics for web, not print?
As a fellow SourceForge user, I was also outraged when I noticed this. SourceForge used to be the go-to place if you had an Open Source project you wanted hosted. They've lacked focus for some time, making all sorts of failed changes that only bloated their surface area without bringing any actual benefit. Perhaps the screws are to them to become profitable. Slashdot's semi-recent foray into HTML5 randomness and video-ads-as-articles shows similar direction.
They've lost a lot of their user base, are bleeding what they've still got, and potential new users are almost universally going to GitHub and the like. It's a bit depressing.
bring back the gopher! I might have to host a Gopher server just to put Gimp on there.
Note: SourceForge and Slashdot share a corporate parent.
Good to know I can blame the decline of two great sites on the same company.
Just saw this today. Guess SourceForge has gone to the dark side. Sad Really.
or just want a (really) inexpensive program that can do layers.
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
...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.
sf.net was the only project host which still offered release downloads. Not every project can afford a deviated download solutions for all their releases.
Now that sf.net has been compromised, what alternative are there?
It's quite ridiculous considering that the sf.net download mirrors are sponsored.
People who don't want to have to pay a monthly Photoshop bill care...
Please inform your "corporate parent" that installer hijacking is a dick move.
I have a project on Sourceforge and it just uses it's own installer (Nullsoft). So, I would assume that you have a choice to use the adware installer, or not if you don't want to.
It doesn't support tracking cookies.
There are lots of other low cost pixel editors that compete with Photoshop. Since Adobe's moron move to the "Creative Cloud" (which may represent a state of mind among Adobe executives rather than a description of the system which is simply Software As A Service) thousands of photographers have been ditching PS. Corel's Paintshop Pro, while commercial software is less expensive than PS. Paintshop even does layers, 16 bit and CMYK output.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I truly hope they don't migrate to FTP only. Using it as their *canonical* download might be ok, but as plenty of other people have mentioned, FTP is a bit outdated. Really, if you're already migrating to a dedicated host, why not use HTTP? And put a BT link up for the majority of us with a client already installed.
(using BT as the sole source isn't really a good solution for folks who don't have admin rights to install a BT client, such as on my work box here)
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.
CS2 crashes frequently on Windows... takes longer to start up, especially on lower end PCs, and doesn't seem to leave a user with any option to permanently bypass product registration, nagging the user every single time it starts up until they do.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Or tinted layers with a volumizing mousse cut in an attractive bob.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
The FSF run their own project hosting website at http://savannah.nongnu.org/
I suspect it's about to become rather more popular.
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.
Since Adobe's moron move to the "Creative Cloud" (which may represent a state of mind among Adobe executives rather than a description of the system which is simply Software As A Service) thousands of photographers have been ditching PS. Corel's Paintshop Pro, while commercial software is less expensive than PS. Paintshop even does layers, 16 bit and CMYK output.
I have to question that. All previous DVD versions of CS thru CS6 continue to run as is with no additional money required. Only when you want new features beyond CS6 do you have to start with the Adobe monthly fee or move to an alternative. Like MSWord since probably Word 95, if not 6, PS has been so over-featured for most users that what more do you need that they haven't already thought of and included? So why would anyone dump an already paid-for program to learn a new one? My guess is that they're just not getting new users nearly as much as before.
The favorite boast I hear from many PS users with personal copies (when the company is paying the bill it's a whole different matter, of course) is who is using the oldest version of PS and is still completely happy with it. This week it was a PS5 (not CS5 -- PS5) user. Personally I used PS7 for a long time until I was given a copy of CS1, and am now only on CS3, where I will likely live for a good long while now.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Well, I am on Linux, and while I don't morally oppose using closed-source software, per se, I don't trust it for a tool, and I am morally opposed to most of the EULAs that such software tends to attach.
OTOH, for a game I see no reason to object to closed source software, but I still object to intrusive EULAs. (Reasonable terms are one thing, but abusive requirements are something totally else. If I can't install it, I'm not interested. And if there's a requirement that calling home is allowed, I want my money back. I run closed source software in a virtual machine with no internet connectivity.
My attitude is due to many past experiences with companies that I thought were reasonably trustworthy. But every day I seem to encounter another story saying that I'm still overly trusting.
OTOH, if you are already running MSWind or Apple, then you've already signed away all your rights. (You *did* read the EULA didn't you?) Anything you do on the computer, they have the right to copy off, and then delete or silently modify your copy. That they don't do this is a business decision on their part, because users of those systems have signed away permission. IANAL, so I can't say that they have the right to use your images for commercial gain. (Well, and I also haven't seen an EULA from either MS or Apple in over a decade. They could have changed things.)
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
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.
Sourceforge was meant to help open-source software, not hinder its use! What happened?
I like to post detailed instructions on how to do things that include cut&pasteable commands (if anything, for my own sake), and since sourceforge removed direct download links to source files I have had to mirror them on my own servers just so that the instructions can be used. Sad. How many projects are now wasting their valuable time working around sourceforge's decisions?
TODO: 753) write sig.
Source Forge used to be good but I stopped trusting the site when I got a virus from one of it's downloads. When a site becomes more about selling ads rather than the tech it's time to move to something different.
*It's not what you can do for the Dark Side but what the Dark Side can do for you!*
This is what too many on /. don't get. It's not about whether or not YOU can access the appropriate installer. Of course you can, else chances are greater than not that you wouldn't be here.
The question is about the ordinary folk and I'm sorry, they aren't going to use bittorrent.
Last time I checked, GIMP was not a program for "ordinary folk". Not that Photoshop is either. I do like the direct FTP distribution idea, if they can work a browser they can get the file... as long as someone is paying for the bandwidth.
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
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.
Opera does.
-J