the demise of a free lunch

Hi all.
Well I wasn’t going to do anything but after another program I used to
use went this way forcing me to make it go away has got me to some
really truely horrible conclusions.

For ages 4 years or so I used the dvdvideosuite from dvdvideosoftware.
it was called free studio.
It was youtube to mp3 and a lot of other things, all for free with
premium subscription, and a few things.
They had their own toolbar which you had to get round and their own
spyware but you could get round that.
I had a program for cd extraction called cdex I used to use.
I had a compresser called izarc I used to use till I went to 7zip.
and I am not evensure if thats safe.
I use nvda and I am not even sure how safe it is.
I have replaced cdex with goldwave a payed for app.
I have replaced the free studio with a payed app.
The issue I have and that we all seemed to hide is that free for us
doesn’t mean free for everyone.
ccleaner and other piriform stuff use google related addware and so do a
lot of things.
However, a lot of software seems to be using opencandy which seems to
install offers fron uniblue 360 security, and other addons to all your
web brousers and computer, change your homepage and put adds on your system.
Now, beffore I start slagging off at every addware company lets get
things straight.
The following companies can load my system with addware because I use
your stuff and thats fine.
1. ms.
I can’t complain I am using a microsoft product right now!
mcafee.
Hmmm that norton and simontech.
I respect them as security people but yeah I don’t like their software.
avg, I don’t care about their software either but they have kept their
old lifetime licences so I guess.
Yahoo.
I use yahoogroups, have people on yahoomail, and have a weather program
using yahoo xml I can’t really bite that hand.
Google, Um.
I use search, I have people using maps, android, earth, streets, just
about every service.
I am on gmail and so are the rest of my family.
I use like just about every service and will continue to do so.
aol.
I do still have an aim account and I do use winamp which aol did own so
yeah I use aol.
The rest can go away.
The bad thing about opencandy is there is no way to get recomended
offers to not install.
And its suspect stuff, optimisers that slow the system, and other
modifying programs.
last week when I got stuff doing this it took all day, a system restore
and a registry restore and several uninstalls to restore the system to
where it was before it.
Some of these sites have donation pages to.
To be honest if you are going to include a lot of trogens and adds to
keep your stuff free.
You may as well asy, we need to fill your system with viruses and
spyware so you stupid fucking pricks can enjoy our stuff for free.
Please pay 10 or 20 dollars so we can actually eat for another day.
I will pay for stuff I use even if its like something I use from time
to time if not to much.
Dvdvideosoft did say this in one of its news sections once.
“some people have said opencandy is a virus, without opencandy we will
have to charge for our software.:”
Well because of opencandy I have payed upwards of 200 bucks in order to
have a cd ripper, and a dvd suite for the stuff I do from time to time.
goldwave is a good program which I use so not a waste but the other
program while it has a lot of stuff I will use I actually prefur if I
didn’t have to buy it.
Right now nvda, seven zip, and cd burner xp are all I have that are
opensource and old winlame.
And to be honest if they go that way I don’t know.
nvda will not, winlame is quite old anyway and I don’t know about the rest.
I urge people to donate every so often to software you use and pay for.
If you use software that was free but is now full of opencandy trogens
and you still want to use it.
I think its time you contact the developer and offer to pay 10-20 bucks
so you don’t have to bother with this and so they will get cash they
would have got from adds from someone that actually uses their stuff.
Right now I can rant because nothing is being effecting me directly.
All the sofftware gone the way it has has been stuff I have not needed
for ages.
cdex for example could become a portable app minus the installers.
the rest dvdvideosoft, freemake and others don’t matter to me.
I just hope it doesn’t spread into something like sevenzip or cd burner xp.
if it does I’m going to ask if I can have it without the adds even if I
have to pay 10 bucks for each.
Sadly with all the free apps and stuff for devices I don’t think every
developer can afford being free anymore.
this has gone on a bit further than the net revolution but truely free
is really not free at all.
In conclusion, buy stuff if you use it and can afford it.
give feadback at least and donate a little from time to time.
your software that you use if it decides to suddenly go add filled then
chances are your local indipendant developer is trying to survive and
you should ask if you can get rid of it and offer to pay a couple bucks
or so for the lost fundage.
Now if the big companies that charge subscriptions do that to you, I
suggest you go else ware.
As an addition to the above post
after looking at the opencandy website
if you add the /nocandy to any install name in a command line or as a batch file you can remove icandy from loading.
To be honest I have now gotten around part of the issue with the stuff I have now though sadly some of the programs I replaced things with are not accessable at all and I will have to eventually try to sort those now.
Happily cdex and the dvdvideosuite are not essential programs so I can avoid opencandy.
However if it ever spreads to more programs in particular 7zip, cd burner xp klite codec and firefox and thunderbird, vlc etc I am going to have to reevaluate what I do.
My theory actually is that because of all the devices there is a glut of apps and freeware and competition is really massive.
Sadly for a lot of people thats to much to handle and programs just go and well die off.
Truely free stuff is nice, but if it has to be loaded with so many adds I’d like to pay for them rather than having to nagotiate the adds most of which are not usefull and even when you kill them they add extra stuff to the system and other malware.
Its sort of sad really.
Today a company that prevides advertising has listed as one of the highest on our second teer stock exchange.
If advertising is the new high well I don’t know.
I do think computer adds should have the same regulation as standard adds do.
Most tv adds I can ignore same with radio although from time to time I find the next cd I want etc.
Radio shows I listen to will put on adverts on stuff they play and I can be happy with this.
But computer adds have no rules.
I don’t want to make my penis bigger or something like that.
I don’t want to have to spend ages trying to save my computer from adds.
Today I got a message from email to fill out a servey, though this time it was from a store I shop at so I filled it I often get lots of messages from things like this.
Yesterday I had to unsubscribe from some list that subscribed me automatically I assume it was from something I got but as this list was so unrelated to stuff I got who knows.