On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 2:00 PM, Greg Sweers <[email protected]> wrote: > Per them all their partners are required to provide an EULA that each person > has to accept before installing any new software. I do classify this myself > as > adware since that is precisely what its doing. ..I don't classify it as > malware > where they don't notify you of installs and such and do a lot of subterfuge > as you phrased it.
Yah, it's an interesting concept. It's certainly adware (advertisements in software), but different from the usual implementation, where you see ads while the program you asked for is running normally. OpenCandy is supposedly only seen during installation of the program you asked for. If, as the purveyors claim, it's only used during installation (while waiting for the program you downloaded to install), it's relatively unobtrusive. If, as the purveyors claim, it sends no identifying information out to others, it's also relatively harmless. If, as the purveyors claim, anyone using OpenCandy clearly identifies what it is and does, then it's also honest and above-board. PDFCreator adopted OpenCandy a year or three back. There was a big kerfuffle in the user community about it. The publishers of PDFCreator responded by offering an alternate installer without it. The prominent download link on this home page gives you the OpenCandy version; the other-downloads section has the sugar-free variety. Advertisements by themselves are not necessarily evil (advertising pays for a lot of things many people enjoy), but on the Internet and computer they often get used in disingenuous or unethical ways. Examples include advertisements that pop-up when you didn't ask for it, or track your activity. One thing that occurs to me is that many versions of Microsoft Windows also feature advertisements during installation. So if you have a problem with using OpenCandy because you see ads during an install, then in fairness you should also stop using MS Windows. -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
