Tucows and Soft32 manufacture new versions of programs that even the program's developers don't know about. These "new versions" are wrapped up in Soft32's and Tucow's "Download Administrator," which attempts to install malware on the end-user's computer. The motive for manufacturing a bogus new version is to tempt existing users of the program to download the "new" version--along with their revenue-generating "Download Administrator." Cnet uses a similar "Download Administrator," but I haven't detected bogus program versions yet, so it seems Cnet's management clings to one last, tattered shred of ethics--at the moment at least--or else they have eluded my vigilance, the cunning rascals.
Apparently these supposedly "free" download sites are desperate to make money, so they have joined forces with malware vendors intent upon crippling and misusing people's computers. Such vendors prey upon the technologically less sophisticated users, like my mother.
Thus, Tucows, Soft32 and Cnet represent unsafe web sites that must not be used by anyone except those prepared to take great risk with their computer system, such as professional computer investigators. I would recommend banning these sites altogether to prevent the unwary from accessing them.
A good site for obtaining free software used to be Source forge, but from what I understand, that site may also be oozing in the direction forged by the above corporate culprits.
It seems the almighty dollar is prized above ethics. Those with money always want more and they are willing to do anything at all in order to get it. When such souls pass on, they should be remembered for what they were. Big-shot, big-name CEO's, even of major computer manufacturing companies, are not exempt from posterity's judgment. If they sent American jobs overseas, betrayed America in other ways, crippled computers, or harmed people in some other way, then such deeds tend to overshadow their other endeavors. They made a bunch of money--big deal, so what, who cares? No form of currency is recognized after death.
2 comments:
Very well said. I've noticed the uptick of these sites requiring you to use a download management program. These sites will even try this when you're using a non-windows system. They don't really care. We're all just dollar signs to them.
I also wish that more people had your point of view on ethics and the almighty dollar. People sometimes have a tendency to put these people on a pedestal and in fact make them Godlike. One tech site that I'm a member of has a scoring system. If you don't agree with everyone else most of the time your comment will be voted down and finally not be seen at all. I've had that happen several times by just telling the truth about someone. It's nice to know I'm not alone in my opinion. It's hard for me to comprehend how so many people are blinded by the illusions and will not accept the facts of the matter. It looks like you're not one of them, thankfully.
I'll have to check out Sourceforge again to see what's happening and again thank you for your intelligences.
Sad. Tucows & Cnet were once valued IT resources. My wife wanted a simple game program so I went to Tucows based on previous experiences with them. Oh how things have changed. Ended up restoring her harddrive with a back-up from Ghost to get rid of all the malware and spyware. I was probably more irked at Tucows because of their claim that the software was free of malware and spyware and hence trustworthy. Thanks for the tips on Cnet and the others.
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