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SourceForge and GIMP [Updated]
New submitter tresf writes: In response to a Google+ post from the Gimp project claiming that "[Sourceforge] is now distributing an ads-enabled installer of GIMP," Sourceforge had this response: "In cases where a project is no longer actively being maintained, SourceForge has in some cases established a mirror of releases that are hosted elsewhere. This was done for GIMP-Win.
Submitter's note: Gimp is actively being maintained and the definition of "mirror" is quite misleading here as a modified binary is no longer a verbatim copy. Download statistics for Gimp on Windows show SourceForge as offering over 1,000 downloads per day of the Gimp software.
In an official response to this incident, the official Gimp project team reminds users to use official download methods. Slashdotters may remember the last time news like this surfaced (2013) when the Gimp team decided to move downloads from SourceForge to their own FTP service. "Therefore, we remind you again that GIMP only provides builds for Windows via its official Downloads page." Note: SourceForge and Slashdot share a corporate parent. Editor's note: I just got back from a busy weekend to see that a bunch of people are freaking out that we're "burying" this story, so here it is. Go hog wild. Sorry it took so long. (And for future reference, user submissions are easily found in the firehose, listed in the order they appear, newest first.)
Update: 06/01 22:37 GMT by T : The SourceForge blog has a welcome update; SourceForge, it says, has effective today "stopped presenting third party offers for unmaintained SourceForge projects. ... At this time, we present third party offers only with a few projects where it is explicitly approved by the project developer, or if the project is already bundling third party offers."
Submitter's note: Gimp is actively being maintained and the definition of "mirror" is quite misleading here as a modified binary is no longer a verbatim copy. Download statistics for Gimp on Windows show SourceForge as offering over 1,000 downloads per day of the Gimp software.
In an official response to this incident, the official Gimp project team reminds users to use official download methods. Slashdotters may remember the last time news like this surfaced (2013) when the Gimp team decided to move downloads from SourceForge to their own FTP service. "Therefore, we remind you again that GIMP only provides builds for Windows via its official Downloads page." Note: SourceForge and Slashdot share a corporate parent. Editor's note: I just got back from a busy weekend to see that a bunch of people are freaking out that we're "burying" this story, so here it is. Go hog wild. Sorry it took so long. (And for future reference, user submissions are easily found in the firehose, listed in the order they appear, newest first.)
Update: 06/01 22:37 GMT by T : The SourceForge blog has a welcome update; SourceForge, it says, has effective today "stopped presenting third party offers for unmaintained SourceForge projects. ... At this time, we present third party offers only with a few projects where it is explicitly approved by the project developer, or if the project is already bundling third party offers."
I remember seeing a submission on this early last week.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
*** BUY ACME SPEARMINT ***
Interfere with slashdot posts?
*** BUY ACME SPEARMINT ***
At last. Now that moron who's been spamming every story with an off topic post of this can shut up.
Issuing an opinion on something the umbrella corporation did that you may have no control over would be a solid follow up.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
This behavior should get SourceForge blacklisted as both cyber-squatters and adware, possibly malware vendor.
Glad to see DICE holding strong on their scumware downloaders.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Aren't we all smart enough to turn off the adware during install? I even know some old people who turn off "add-ons" that they don't need.
Well, given that adware 'offers' still get injected into installers, I'm going to use my incredible mental thinking skills to hypothesize "no, we aren't".
Aside from that, even if you don't get hit by the adware, having to defang an installer just to use a program leaves the indistinguishable taste of pure sleaze in your mouth for the rest of the process(looking at you, Oracle and the Ask.com toolbar...)
Sourceforge is dragging the GIMP project's name through the mud by bundling this shit, even if they don't hit anyone. That alone is more than enough to be displeased by.
I don't buy the /. editors' explanation.
This story has been repeatedly submitted since at least late Wednesday and has been voted to red multiple times in the firehose.
Meanwhile, most other red stories have already appeared on the front page, so clearly some editors were still around...
Anyone buying the "busy weekend" excuse? Can't say I am, since the story broke near the middle of last week, and we've seen /. willfully ignore the community so many times. Look at the amount of pushback it took to defeat Beta and Bennet Hasselton.
Wonder if they'll ever drop the anti-Gamergate narrative too (probably not, since they have most of the tech media circling wagons with them on the pro-corruption side)?
(And for future reference, user submissions are easily found in the firehose, listed in the order they appear, newest first.)
Just curious here. Does voting a submission up or down have any effect on whether it's accepted? It seems some stories appear on the front page as soon as they're submitted, others languish for days. Gives the impression the editors are selecting stories based on some agenda other than what slashdot readers want to see.
This is news because Sourceforge used to be trustworthy.
It used to be a respected site where open-source developers could host their binaries without fear of someone tampering with it.
I thought this was old news though. What is new about it this time? How is anyone even surprised, with the types of ads they would fly on that site?
As much fun as it is for the conspiracy theorists here to presume Slashdot is some tyrannical overlord, I figured there was a different reason for not posting it
ITYM Dice, not slashdot, who also holds Sourceforge. Anyway, it was all over the tech news and all over the firehose. This story is very belated. Now, sure, soulskill may have been away, but it's not like no new stories were put on the front page in the intervening time.
It's hardly paranoia that a company attempts to control its image on the "properties" that owns.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Aren't we all smart enough to turn off the adware during install?
No -- most people just keep clicking "OK" until the install is finished. Just like most people keep signing pages or initialing forms when presented with a bunch of paperwork... they stop reading the details.
The number of people who actually stop and read everything they sign is similar to the number that consider all the options during install scripts -- and that number is VERY SMALL.
(Small anecdote -- quite a few years ago I signed the rental agreement for my first apartment. I was told to initial each of the 10 pages or so and sign the final page. I stopped and read the thing before doing so. My landlord -- who managed something like 40 apartments and had been doing so for a couple decades -- said he could only recall one other person who read the whole rental agreement before signing. And I actually discovered some really interesting rental policies while doing so.)
Also, more on point -- there's the rather obvious evidence that companies wouldn't bother bundling adware if no one ever installed it.
I even know some old people who turn off "add-ons" that they don't need.
And I even know many young people who don't seem to pay any attention while installing and end up with all sorts of weird "add-ons" and don't know how they got there. What's your point?
Project maintainers have been able to opt-in to adware installers (eg. FileZilla), the news is that SourceForge are hijacking complete projects they claim are abandoned, and replacing the binaries without the real developers having a say.
If they are modifying the binary, would that not make it a derivative work? And so by the license, would that not make it a violation to call it "Gimp?" I know that would be the case on my FOSS project.
Note to self: never use SourceForge.
Hard to believe that Sourceforge was once a fairly reputable place to download software from. Seems like a millions years ago now.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
They were doing a developer opt-in scheme for a while with revenue sharing from the ads. Now, they claim that the project was abandoned for 18 months despite multiple releases being posted in that time. So they took over the project and started added ads to the installer without developer permission.
So this is new.
a year or so back they started doing that with filezilla.....and its malware NOT adware
This is news because Sourceforge used to be trustworthy. It used to be a respected site where open-source developers could host their binaries without fear of someone tampering with it.
Yeah, I know. USED to be. Seriously guys, they've been doing stuff like this since 2013. I remember telling it to everyone back then, but was only met with dismissal. Why is everyone so outraged now? Here, here's a blog post from that period where they started it. Did nobody keep up with what was going on? Did nobody use Sourceforge at all in that time period?
I know I sound incredulous, but it's because I am. I've known about this for years, yet nobody cared at all. I don't know why GIMP is a special snowflake compared to the other projects whose reputations they've ruined in the meantime, and I'm pretty sure even GIMP's had this installer for quite a bit longer than this last week (I don't know for sure, I don't use GIMP to be truthful).
"Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
Any at all for being so closely affiliated with a company distributing adware and using deceptive practices riding on the backs of open source?
Do you even have an experience with such malware ridden installers?
The creators abuse every possible linguistic trick on the book to confuse the user about what s/he had selected and what is going to be installed. Sometimes even blatantly lying and claiming that something will not work properly if you choose not to install the optional "performance enhancer".
I had to deal once with such installer for a freebie game, which was bundled with 5(?) pieces of malware. Luckily for me it was an InstallShield which was showing a summary screen of what is going to be installed before doing anything. I had to go through the install wizard three times before the summary screen was showing that only the game itself would be installed. The last one was the trickiest: in description they used effectively triple negative and user had to actually check the box to not to install the malware.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
The GIMP is GPL'd so they can make derivative works all they like so long as they're also GPL'd. Mere aggregation (i.e. putting some other crap plus gimp in the same installer) doesn't make the other aggregated things have to fall under the GPL, as is specified in the license.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
For those who still use Windows and want GIMP (and a LOT of other opensource and freeware Windows programs) you can't beat Ninite.. https://ninite.com/ Ninite does all of the work to make sure you only get the desired opensource program and NONE of the crapware/malware garbage that so many installers are adding on today.. (Yes, I'm looking at YOU, Oracle... You and your fuckin' Ask toolbar on Java installs)... Thankfully I've switched completely to Linux and don't have to worry about that crap...
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
I've never not seen a list listed in the order it appears.
(cough) Ninite (cough) .... The ONLY way to get GIMP and a LOT of other good stuff freeware/opensource programs for Windows.. Back when I still used Windows, I wouldn't be without it...
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
GPL covers the rights to use and distribute code. I was not aware that it also included the right to use of trademarks. (Assuming GIMP was even properly trademarked.) See also "Iceweasel".
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
2) I call bullshit on SourceForge's assertion that their adware only comes with projects that aren't actively maintained. There have been a lot of complaints about FileZilla downloads (see, for example, https://forum.filezilla-projec...), and it is definitely a very active project.
found the one active google+ user
It is particularly an issue with The GIMP because it is an open-source gateway program. GIMP is the first open-source software that some people directly experience. I know artists who use it and it's their first contact with the open source community. Sure, they use a lot of OS software without knowing, but this is a highly visible individual program.
Lots of geeks suggest The GIMP to their friends who are otherwise pirating Photoshop or languishing in MS Paint. It's just not a good thing for them to end up downloading malware laden crap because they went to a page Google found for them and not the real download site.
I remember seeing pretty much this same story last week on slashdot!?
is it an update to the story or is it a dupe?
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Or do like Apple does and require you to install all the parts of Itunes including crap in the file that can be installed independently after being extracted. I don't want most of the garbage, but they seem to think I need it.
Right and Gimp is going to have to do something about it or risk losing any trademarks they have. One of the few things about IP in the US that's actually sensible.
OzPeter,
Soulskill has apologized. Repeatedly, and professionally. Accept it and move on.
Stop the presses! /. has an editor?
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
I didn't know because until earlier this year I did absolutely nothing on Windows.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
I've classified Sourceforge as a malicious site for a long time now. Is there some reason other than their early history with the open source movement that they're still around? It seems like they've been trading on and abusing that good will for a VERY long time.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
The original announcement for when Sourceforge added the "feature" of injecting malware into installers said that the money earned would be shared with the developers. So I have to wonder: did they send the GIMP a check? Have the GIMP developers demanded that Sourceforge do so?
On the assumption that Sourceforge did not, it seems like they've just burned a bridge that they shouldn't have. They killed any trust that users would have had for SF projects a long time ago, but developers who were willing to sell out have stuck around. But now that developers know that SF is willing to just assume control of a project (and the associated profits), why would any developer continue to use SF.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
How is it possible that you got blind-sided by this story? For a company with media holdings Dice sure does a lousy job of handling public relations. It's not like slashdot is the first publisher to have a conflict of interest involving it's parent company. The smart thing would have been to simply disclose up front the fact that slashdot's parent company owns sourceforge.
I do not block ads. I do block third party scripts.
As someone who actually uses SourceForge in the way it was originally intended, i.e. a place to host one of my software projects, this is certainly something I would not want to happen. What is a good alternative? Right now I mostly put release tarballs on SourceForge, the git repository and wiki pages have already moved to GitHub.
I blanked my Mac a few weeks ago and when I started reinstalling software I got some survey crap popping up on my screen asking for my details. Turns out it was the SourceForge installer for FileZilla that had sneaked it through. Googling it threw up enough horror stories to make me just blank the Mac again and start over. I'll never download anything from SourceForge again. A decade of trust destroyed in one stupid move.
Host your own stuff and sign your downloads, or at least publish hashes. Come on folks, how often do you need to get bitten? "Trust" is an irrelevant concept when dealing with businesses.
Since you're already using GitHub..
Note what they mention at the end:
You can also attach binary assets (such as compiled executables, minified scripts, documentation) to a release.
This one is voluntary though. I even got the crapwere when I denied the install.
https://forum.filezilla-projec...
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
What about the other editors? You're not the only one left manning the ship, right?
What was the problem? Was it the bandwidth costs? AFAIK most of the files you can download from SourceForge are actually not served by SourceForge itself but by mirrors. So those guys are shouldering the brunt of the costs not you. By doing something like this I would not be surprised if some of the mirrors decided they do not want to work with you anymore.
If you wanted the extra revenue by bundling ads with applications you should have done this explicitly with a prior public notification of this being done. For example News.com for a couple of years now bundles their own installer with the downloads they provide. I've seen other places do the same thing. But you should always be able, as a user, to disable the adware installation. Also the user should know before downloading a binary that it has adware in it. Not stealth adding it without people knowing about it. Last but not least hijacking someone else's account for these shenanigans was quite pathetic and fail. This was all handled quite poorly.
A lot of people have been leaving SourceForge as is because it has worse Git integration than other more recent sites and this is just another nail in the coffin.
They fucked audacity up quite a bit. SF is clearly shit.
Sourceforge used to be the one site I trusted to not contain adware and viruses, because it was near-impossible to add those without the OSS community noticing them. Now they're fuxing with the code after community review.
What sites still exist that I can trust? Sometimes I need to download apps and code, like when I'm loading up a new PC. Are there any remaining software/shareware sites that do *not* stuff their downloads full of malware?
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
Speaking of which: Does anyone know if SF provide source code for their malware? Otherwise it seems rather like a GPL violation to me. (I'm not downloading that stuff to find out.)
they've been doing stuff like this since 2013. I remember telling it to everyone back then, but was only met with dismissal. Why is everyone so outraged now?
Because back then they were doing it only for projects whose maintainers consented to it. (as a kind of twisted revenue-sharing program)
Now they are hijacking the installers of so-called "abandoned" projects, and locking out the owners too.
Seriously, if you're downloading from a third-party mirror, why would you not check the hash of the binary compared to the original? I mean, why would anyone even use Sourceforge for this in the first place? The official website has the official versions, and whatever distro you're using has screened versions in their repos.
Where is the official website? The GIMP is easy; Google knows that it originated at gimp.org. But a search also brings up GIMP at 'softtonic', 'gimpshop', CNet, and TechRadar -- all of which probably have added malware. If the program were more obscure, finding the correct link would be more difficult.
It would be nice to have one site that served trustable downloads for shareware and open-source code. Sourceforge used to be that site.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
This behavior should get SourceForge blacklisted as both cyber-squatters and adware, possibly malware vendor.
I agree 100%. 10 years ago sourceforge was a great site. Now it's basically a malware haven. Unfortunately, plugins like Web of Trust (WoT) seem to have been slow to catch up ... WoT is still marking sourceforge as green ("trusted"). Perhaps blackholing the site in DNS really is the best answer...
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
http://danluu.com/slashdot-sou...
SF claims the project was abandoned in 2013.
To quote another user from Ars:
"the files page has the folder GIMP + GTK+ (stable release) with a last modified time of 2014-11-18. In that, GIMP 2.8.14 is the latest with the 2014-11-18 modification date. The previous file, GIMP 2.8.10 has a modification date of 2014-05-29. (This is just shy of 6 months.) The one before that, GIMP 2.8.8 is also last modified 2014-05-29, and the one before that is GIMP 2.8.6 last modified on 2013-06-24. (This one is just shy of 11 months back.)
So the project was abandoned, but a year later, it's still updating files. And it had three releases in the year after it was supposedly abandoned. The last release was just a few days over 6 months ago, and the project has a history of up to 11 months between releases. How does that qualify as "abandoned"?
No, this is a bullshit excuse Sourceforge was hoping no one would delve into the details to call their bullshit on. There is no other way to put it than they flat-out lied about the abandonment."
Oh, and to boot - According to the gimp-win developer, they locked him out of his account.
That's right, SourceForge STOLE THE ACCOUNT using an account called SF-editor1 in order to wrap one of the most popular FOSS projects with a malware installer.
So here's what we do, guys. I've got a really good attorney. Same one that helped me kick EA's ass back in the Spore lawsuit days.
We band together, we find every person that has had this malware pushed on them, and we sue the ever-living shit out of SourceForge in a class-action suit where accepting a settlement is NOT AN OPTION. Knowingly distributing malware, using misleading language to get the malware to install, and the damage the malware does to the user's computer are all entirely actionable in court and we need to band together to put a legal end to this crap once and for all. We now have the evidence in the testimony of the former account holder, we have copies of the malware, we have copies of the installer, we have screencapped evidence of the lies SourceForge has posted. SourceForge is DEAD IN COURT.
Look up Mark Punzalan Law. Let him know Alex from the Spore/EA case sent you.
If you want, I can come forth as class representative again. I will be more than happy to be the headman ripping these people apart in court.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
SourceForge doesn't actually pay for most of the servers and bandwidth used to serve up their projects and they never have. All of the downloads are hosted on a network of mirrors run by organisations like universities out of the pure goodness of their heart.
I think it's time to have a serious talk with those providers. We remove SourceForge's mirror providers, we remove SourceForge.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
theres a reason I refuse to DL anything from SF anymore.
they've apparently sabotaged GIMP too - for example, they apparently changed the save dialog so that you can only save XCF files and have to click through a "you have unsaved changes" warning when you export to a different format.
Is that any different from how Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice Calc, or Gnumeric prompts to save a spreadsheet in native format even if you've already exported it to CSV? Or how Microsoft Word, LibreOffice Writer, or AbiWord prompts to save a document in native format even if you've already exported it to plain text or RTF? Most formats other than XCF do not support layers, and if your document has layers, flattening them to save would lose data.
Demanding an apology is an anti-pattern.
I believe one issue with Ninite is then you can only manage stuff through Ninite, so you don't get the individual items in the programs list to remove.
It may also depend on the SF Terms Of Use. It would not surprise me that there is a clause that allows them to distribute software under your trademark as part of hosting a project there (how could they legally do their normal job without?)
Look ma, no malware windows downloads: https://ninite.com/
If SourceForge isn't competitive and doesn't do what their competitors do, then they won't get the business. Nobody likes crapware installers, but it's what the customers (who got the money to burn) want and expect. But isn't this over already?
From: https://sourceforge.net/blog/g...
[updated on 28-5-2015] Since yesterday, SourceForge Gimp-Win mirror downloads only the original software without any offers. We also invite the Gimp-Win developer to take back control of the project if that is his desire, while respectfully asking that he maintain any project updates or allow us to do so.
GIMP project's official statement on SourceForge's actions:
https://mail.gnome.org/archive...
-- perl -e'print pack"H*","6e656d6f406d38792e6f7267"'
Can you not provide the checksums for the binaries on the SourceForge page ? Or are they actively modifying those as well ?
Is there anything we can do to sourceforge? Most of our slashdot posters seem to be in agreement sourceforge's masters are adding malware, are exploiting the fact GIMP uses the GPL, etc etc... but our posts are just preaching to the choir. What about helping the clueless masses? Are there ways we can downrank/poison/mark-as-malware slashdot's search engine rankings in the search engines? Or post malware warnings about slashdot downloads in shareware review sites? Or ask GIMP to start a kickstarted lawsuit? Who's running the show at sourceforge, can we identify them so all their future enrichment attempts through thievery will be tougher? Anything else? I used to love sourceforge and now I feel betrayed and I have some cash to contribute to some retribution.
Is SF going to be another one of these sites, and there are many of them, that packs adware in with the applications they host?
or not - please feel free to correct me.
when you finally wake up from your party, please also explain why you picked the submission that managed to down play the fact that your parent overlords are wrapping GIMP - our DEARLY BELOVED GIMP - in.. i can't find the words to describe the insult... deep breath..
you FAIL.
none of us is convinced.
what soul?
** answer me, damn you **
i don't mind being wrong about this - correct me.
i also love slashdot.
i do NOT like this.
Could you imagine what would happen if adware installers ever became a standard practice in the Linux environment. You run "yum upate" or "apt-get update" and find that someone added the ask toolbar as a requirement for some random C dev-lib?
I have a Windows PC for gaming still and every time I jump on it and find that I need to update software or download something that I've completely forgotten about how disingenuous businesses are towards their Windows clients. I don't even think about there being bundled installers on Linux, but its still in this day and age a standard practice for products in windows. Bewildering.
I believe the expression is: "Christ, what an asshole."
i have to admit i know nothing of the people behind ./ and have really only been reading for the news and the chance to yell back at the boxen, occasionally.
this has drawn me in, i expect i will regret that it did.
hello sk, i think i'm sorry i yelled at you below, but i also expect you've been prepared to duck since you hit submit.
i learned today that firehose is where the news is, and am now in search of an rss for this, as opposed to the one that shows up bonostyle in my feed reader.
i think i learned also that (a) this is not too common an occurance around here and (b) there exist a way for people to complain about, when it happens.
i think that's ok so far.
all that remains is to see what slashdot have to say when they report on themselves, as they say they will.
in the meantime - thanks for all the fish and that?
this seems to the takeaway - NEWS is found in the firehose - slashdot per se is more the DICE magazine section.
"Sourceforge is dragging the GIMP project's name through the mud by bundling this shit, even if they don't hit anyone."
This is one of more sickening angles to this. The GIMP has a hard enough time, even though it's excellent. For a free piece of software it's absolutely amazing. Something like this could make their project that much harder to keep going, and way more miserable.
Then factor that across all FOSS, amplified by every single project SF violates. Words fail me...
AC is BS exempt.
Yeah, we all gave up on SF ages ago, but it still has a sentimental attachment even though i haven't touched it since way before 2013. Feels like this is the cinderblock that broke the camels back.
5. Conveying Modified Source Versions.
You may convey a work based on the Program, or the modifications to
produce it from the Program, in the form of source code under the
terms of section 4, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
a) The work must carry prominent notices stating that you modified
it, and giving a relevant date.
[...]
6. Conveying Non-Source Forms.
You may convey a covered work in object code form under the terms
of sections 4 and 5, provided that you also convey the
machine-readable Corresponding Source under the terms of this License,
in one of these ways:
[...]
If you don't want to miss out on extra free offers, make sure not to click outside the box otherwise contraindicated to the left of the below field.
One of my friends girlfriends installed GIMP on his computer, presumably from an unofficial source, thus installing some piece of adware. This went a long way toward convincing my friend that open source software was not to be trusted.
This is exactly why open source software tends to struggle - people pay to be brainwashed into thinking they're getting top quality. Open source software doesn't even try.
Saying you had a "very busy weekend", to my eyes, feels just like a euphemism for "management argued a lot before this got posted, and when it did get posted, the expression modified binary had to replace bundled with malware".
Personal Note: "bundled with malware" is what every other place I read the article used to define it.
Personal Note 2: If I happened to stumble on some facts, I want to stress I understand them completely as I also happen to have a very policy-centered full time job. I'm just letting my thoughts fly in a comment, because, well, comment section is still community moderated in full that I know, thus still being free (in the extreme, FSF-like sense of the word "free").
The first time that I ever downloaded something from sourceforge it was gimp. It was when I was around 15, so this was around 15 years ago give or take. And I distinctly remember the installer was packaged with 2 or 3 cruddy applications. It only took 10-15 years for people on /. to realize that this kinda sucks?
Redo slashdot, allow markdown, bbedit, html, LaTeX.. editing.
Design a proper responsive layout (It was not Beta) and keep it about tech
Personally, I find markup on a laptop or tablet pure agony and a distraction from what I want and need to post. The informal forum for me.
The days when the geek could wall himself off from the world are long gone, every decision he makes exists within a larger social context.
That is why stories like Gamersgate touch a raw nerve and can't be wished away.
Just sayin'.
We can't even browse there from our corporate machines.
Big pain, as there are still a number of relevant projects on it.
However, I think SF may be one of those funky brown bits circling around the hole in the bottom of the commode.
"Busy weekend"? Yeah, right. This story was FP'd by a bunch of other sites (probably deliberately to tweak your nose) in the middle of last week.
You're rapidly losing what little credibility and user trust you have left Slashdot. Get off the fucking indignant horse and stop playing fucking politics.
You're associated with scumbag companies. Hold them to a higher standard where your business is concerned.
You wouldn't believe how many people I watched instantly dismiss and distrust open source software, in a single instant, because of the bullshit being bundled with files at SourceForge. At work, I once suggested a free open source alternative to an office application to some folks. Lo and behold, 5 people now had malware infecting their otherwise clean computer. I can't even mention open source software to them now without being laughed at, they aren't techies after all.
The point is, people turn to open source software for the transparency and because they knew exactly what they're getting. SourceForge has gone and fucked up all of that trust, and basically destroyed their own brand, not to mention the image of many open source projects who never wished to have their applications bundled with malware in the first place.
"(And for future reference, user submissions are easily found in the firehose, listed in the order they appear, newest first.) "
Actually I couldn't find this particular summary in the firehose. Was the title renamed to be less clickbaity for once?
Also you seem to be keeping ACs at the very least from posting a second time for over an hour on this story. Good job! :P
You are correct that I misremembered the behavior of LibreOffice Calc. But both Gnumeric and Excel failed to treat an exported CSV as having been "saved". Gnumeric's alert after I exported CSV and closed a worksheet was as follows:
Excel's was as follows when I exported:
Followed by this when I closed:
LibreOffice Calc's was as follows when I exported:
I assume these programs are referring to changes to column widths, formulas, and other things not typically represented in CSV.
What sort of moron do you take people for to think that you have to "protect" them from choosing a format of file that doesn't save layers
Any of the morons who reported "What happened to my layers?" through support channels.
and instead try to make them always save whatever they do in a format that no other programs support?
The same morons who pass around PSD files made in Photoshop. At least XCF has a reference implementation distributed under a free software license. Has Adobe released a spec or free library for manipulating PSD files? Which interoperable multilayer raster format were you recommending?
What on earth is the point of *banning* people from typing in a file with the suffix that they want to use in the save menu, and instead making them choose an entirely different menu?
If the names of the "Export" items on the File menu were changed to "Flatten and Save", would that satisfy you?
Actually two different menus, depending on context, only one of which has a keyboard shortcut.
Then you must have edited your keyboard shortcuts. My copy of GIMP 2.8.10 has keyboard shortcuts for export:
If I want to download something I'm not familiar with, I look for the official site in Wikipedia.
[iconv --from-code=utf-7]
I know... It'll be done when it's done, but I needed to vent a little.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
(Fork of Xonotic) Fully FLOSS FPS with 70+ weapons 100+ maps.
Lots of mutators and years of work.
Look at some pics then follow the DL or Project page links.
Some people have said to choose another host but who else provides so much space and isn't fly-by-night. I don't know of any.
http://www.lgdb.org/game/chaos...
I knew the site was in trouble as soon as they started showing those misleading ads with the big "Download" button, which were more prominent than the actual download links. Any site that actually cared about its user base or the projects it hosts would've stopped that right away. Instead, these guys double down on the deception, moving the malware from the ads to the actual content of the site. The initial appearance of those ads told me all that I needed to know about the new owners of the site.
It is really sad that SourceForge was bought out by such parasites. It used to be THE place to download and host open source software. In the hands of someone who actually wanted provide that service, it could have remained useful.
It is sad that someone would buy the premier open source hosting site if they had no interest in continuing to provide the premier open source hosting site. Some may say that the site's downfall was inevitable, but really it wasn't. They could have modernized the service, or sold it to someone who actually wanted to run a business around it. Instead it was sold to someone that intends to milk every last dollar out of it, while simultaneously destroying any value the site actually had. The site doom wasn't a foregone conclusion, but rather a result of the decisions made by the site owner.
Seems like all Windows users need is a VM. Install Ubuntu, Fedora or whatever in there, and use the repo for all your applications. Let Windows just be sort of like a hypervisor.
as long as the ads are distributed openly :p
I have a few programs over at SF that I uploaded long ago. They are not FOSS, they are simply free. There is no restrictions, they are public domain as that is how I released them. You can take them and sell them or do whatever you want.
They are also fairly XP-centric so they are no longer that popular. Anyhow, my point is that I do not even have the email address any more and the projects are abandoned in every sense of the word. I checked and, no, they do not have any wrappers with adware. I suspect popularity matters (as it would rationally do).
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Yeah, right... You won't be leaving. I guarantee that I see AC posts in the next article's comments. I am on to you!
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
source forge is a direct competitor of github, if they don't figure out how to make money without screwing with content then they will bankrupt cause its old tech. also stopped using filezilla, instead, wrote my own ftp then no other ftp client will make me download any shit from them while they are fucking around.
Sue them and close this crap site already.
It's been dead for a long time now anyway.
Apart from the sub-heading "Trusted by millions", how are we supposed to trust this site, having never seen it mentioned anywhere else?
The big green Download button just looks plain scary. The fact that it requires an installer program to be downloaded and installed is also damned scary. What do they promise to do better than the authentic original source of each of these apps?
Seriously guys, they've been doing stuff like this since 2013. I remember telling it to everyone back then, but was only met with dismissal.
Their original announcement was that project owners could CHOOSE to use the revenue-gaining setup process, and it seemed fairly reasonable to accept that some project owners might go that way, but it was NEVER something that SourceForge was going to force on any hosted project. This recent decision to go stamping their own setup on any project that looks a little unsupported was a shock, but I don't think it has been happening since 2013.
That is not the case. It just grabs the installer packs and installs the software for you. You still have all the individual listing in your programs list.
It may also depend on the SF Terms Of Use. It would not surprise me that there is a clause that allows them to distribute software under your trademark as part of hosting a project there (how could they legally do their normal job without?)
Your original code... Not a derivative work based on your code.
You are right. Seems they never trademarked the name, so there is nothing they can do but shame them. (And Source Forge has had no shame for years...)
Recently, OSDN Inc., who had been operating Slashdot Japan and SourceForge.JP, announced that they changed the name of "Slashdot Japan" to "Srad" and also changed the name of "SourceForge.JP" to just "OSDN".
"Srad" is an abbreviation of "Srado", and "Srado" is an Japanese abbreviation of "Slashdot".
OSDN have also announced that the mismatch between the direction of OSDN and Dice Holdings is the main reason.
After the spreading of the news of SourceForge.net, OSDN have announced that OSDN never add adware to sleeping projects and that OSDN does not permit malware bundled software.
In Srad, editors picked the news of SourceForge.net on May 28.
I think that Japanese community had not welcome the change of Slashdot Japan initially.
People in Japan, however, come to praise the OSDN's decision after these news are spread.
AppStores and Linux Repos?
Even with the update, Sourceforge is still part of the Spyware/crapware problem on PC. The amount of time and money IT dept's have to waste to clean up this garbage, isn't small.
SF shouldn't distribute apps with junkware at all. They should be at the frontline of trying to end it, but instead, all they are doing now is changing their policies. Until they cancel their bundled spyware crap program entirely, there is still no good reason for end users to be happy with sourceforge.
WipZip from WinZip Computing is another program that I trusted and respected. However, some time after they were bought by Corel, they start adding crapware offers to their installer. I trusted the company, so I ran their installer, carefully declining any offers to install other software. However, the installer still changed the search provider on all my browsers to some sleazy site I've never heard about before. It was very difficult to remove the sites. They screwed up the browsers to try and remain entrenched. I ended up wiping and reinstalling Chrome and Firefox to get rid of it. I never did totally fix IE, but I don't use it anyway. I will never trust Winzip again. End of rant.
This is why I don't read Slashdot anymore. Followed this link from a story about this burying. Slashdot is just another useless site now. Check out SoylentNews or HN now.
So editors are in here with disingenuous arguments that Slashdot hasn't been trying to bury the story. Just a busy 5-day weekend for one editor and despite other articles continuing to be posted during that time, this one got missed. Sorry, not "this one", I mean, "the three or four top-rated Firehose submissions". And finally this morning, after letting an article go through, it disappeared off the page after about an hour. Totally unrelated SQL glitch, right?
I haven't used it in over a year, so likely it's changed since then, but I do recall some software (used to) not show up in my programs list.
Others and I rated negatively on https://www.mywot.com/en/score... ... Overall, still showing positive ratings since SF is an old popular web site. :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
So what?
Crime happens all the time.
By the way, how to get Java without Ask.com ?
I wasn't able to do it - not that I am very tech-savvy, though.