Removed Adware#354
Conversation
MELERIX
commented
Apr 4, 2015
MELERIX
commented
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Opens massive bag of dried corn, and pours it into a roaster This is gonna be awkward. @_@ I for one support the removal of the adware on the grounds that the prompts are obtuse and some of the offered adware strays too far into malware territory. |
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jaja xD, well... someone had to do it, there is a lot of people complaining about the ads included in the installer, and these ads are not necessary for an Open Source project. imho a button to donations in the website would be a better option instead of ads in the installer. |
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The installer EXE sucks anyway, with or without ads. Zips and such are easier. Also, zips and such suck anyway, with or without installer EXE. |
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I honestly never use installers for any of my emulators. I have an emulation directory (C:\Emulators), and I store all my emulators and ROMS and everything there. The only emulators that give me trouble are Project64 and some other obscure emulators. Most of them have installers. Here is a solution that I think would benefit both sides. Keep the installer, but also have a zip/7z version that people can download that is portable. I know why they put ads in the installer, it's because they put a lot of effort into this emulator and it takes time and effort to build something like this. I think a link for donations would make more people willing to give money a better chance to do so, as oppose to forcing them to see an ad to give a much smaller amount of money. Just a thought. Feel free to modify my ideas to better suit everybody. 😄 |
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I'd just like to throw my 2 cents in. Including known malware in an installer is absolutely disgusting and completely unacceptable. It needs to be removed immediately. |
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"Known malware" I don't see any malware in the installer when I run it. What are you referring to? |
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I guess this... Baidu-International: Adware.Win32.Somoto.Q |
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The installer makes a request of a third party server. Semi-random software is offered. Some of this software is a potential security risk. Some of it hijacks your web browser and can prove difficult to remove. (Not to mention the security risk associated with browser hijackers in general.) |
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@vgturtle127 If you look at the code removed in the pull request you can see the malware in question is BetterInstaller. |
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@utterbull Better Installer isn't malware, per se. PJ64 itself comes with no "malware" inside it. The programs that can be offered via it, however, can be malware. |
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It seems to me just to be advertisements and software that has been repackaged. Don't get me wrong, I'm not condoning it, I had license violations on some of my software and I hated it, and I hate installers that have this sort of stuff in it. I just don't see anything malicious. 😕 It is up to the user whether or not to install such things anyway, and that is the reason I have Unchecky installed. 😄 And I think the general consensus is that people shouldn't install software offered to them during the install of other software. Hopefully anybody running a Nintendo 64 emulator has at least that much knowledge, and they must, because getting N64 games to run in any emulator with any plugins is fairly difficult, and requires a fair bit of tweaking and know-how. 😆 |
Unwitting users end up installing dodgy software because this installer's prompts can be confusing. |
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+1 Ads and "special offers" could be presented on the site's download page, but not in the final product (binaries). |
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@AmbientMalice I know, but I'm guessing most of us aren't those kind of users. I'm assuming that due to the fact that N64 emulators are far beyond install and run. It doesn't matter really, if we remove it it would benefit everybody except the developers I suppose. But if they put a donation link I would definitely do it. @JunielKatarn Everybody says that, but people don't necessarily know what goes on behind the scenes. Some people, like nocash for example, really need money to survive. And the little money they make from a popular emulator makes them enough money to keep them fed and ensure they have electricity and stuff. Again, I'm not condoning it, I'm just saying try to look at it from the point of view of others before you decide. I would like to hear from @project64 and @cxd4 and other project members about what they think. A donation model (like Stella) may be a really good idea. |
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I was waiting an answer from zilmar, due he already removed ads previously, as you can see here: a201d21 so I just did the same, but now with binno ads. |
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ok, is enough, 14 days waiting and seems there is no interest on removing the ads, so I'm closing this pull request. sadly seems the people love the ads :S |
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I am not at all interested in keeping the ads, but I am not interested in changing anyone else's mind on the matter either. Money always gives me a headache when I think about software development--just like to think about the code, not the financials. You guys are all welcome to think whatever you want though because I really don't know what to think about these other practical matters. I can't make up my mind with a social issue this complex, so if zilmar made up his mind already, that's good enough for me. |
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let's reopen this. reasons: http://forum.pj64-emu.com/showthread.php?t=4973 also: #468 |
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Let's do it! Project 64 will be better by far without it. |
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Does @project64 know if you can ask for certain ads not to be shown? I really like being able to support Zilmar since his work in N64 emulation is priceless and much appreciated. I'm sure he has bills to pay and possibly a family to feed, so I consider it the least I can do to see some ads before I install his awesome emulator. 😄 |
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I'd just like to throw my 2 cents in (again). Including known malware (or ethically-ambiguous-ware that is known to install malware) in an installer is absolutely disgusting and completely unacceptable. It needs to be removed immediately. Lack of financial resources is never, ever, an excuse to harm the end-users. |
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@utterbull I agree, but I wish we could just tell the ad company which ads were malicious, that way we could still use the ads to support @project64 but not get the malicious ads. |
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Gentlemen, gentlemen. Let's not get carried away.
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@cxd4 I think asking the user to change their OS just for a single program seems a bit extreme. This really should not be a complex nor controversial issue. The malware needs to go. |
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@cxd4 What do you mean when you say a "free language". Aren't all of them free? Free as in freedom, or free as in free of a certain restriction? |
It's a nice thought, but Stroustrup didn't seem to think so. We're talking about the same guy who praised C as the best language of its time, then invented the C++ language and outcasts the practices of C in favor of "a good language like C++". See what he did thar?
Project64 1.4 is not simply more free than Project64 2.x insofar as choice of programming language--it's also more free than Project64 1.6. One of the examples is that in pj 1.6 the "game fix" cheats were moved out of the designated CHT file, for reasons of outward appearances and user perspective to the "majority faction". The quality of free software doesn't appeal to majority; it appeals to correct engineering practices--of which many of the other hacks included after project64 1.4 do not fall under. This also is the cause of many regressions and RDB notes in 1.6 saying to use 1.4 for some games, none of which can be tested by Git checkouts due to the tarball/SVN convention of keeping source for various reasons. So in that sense among any other, 1.4 is the most free version. |
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@cxd4 Oh OK. We could still remove the hacks if we patch Project64 2.x with better emulation. And the RDB can also be updated. I mean, I don't really know how many games and other parts of Project64 need to be updated, but I'm sure it isn't "too late". I'm thinking of starting a branch on my GitHub and trying to improve it as much as possible. It might be a big pull request, or many small ones. Regardless, I still need to get my dev machine out of storage and upgrade it to Windows 10. After that will be when the patches start coming. Until then, I am trying to make as many contributions I can with GitHub online tools. |
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"We could still remove the hacks if we patch Project64 2.x with better emulation." Ironic as it is, even the guy responsible for C++ existing cares deeply about portability: And those are only some of the relevant issues. Patching Project64 2.x with better emulation also requires the ability to test for regressions--not only is the vast majority of the 1.4 tarball's compatibility advantage a bunch of untracked unknowns, but the ability to test changes on more than one operating system can both point out unforseen bugs AND accidental improvements to emulation on some platforms, where bad code could actually fix a game when compiled on the right target. Being Windows-only does not help anything there. |
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The adware. May never be removed from the traditional installer, but I found an alternative. Moreover, it will automatically detect and download updates (when newer builds get published), which is convenient for alpha testers (non developers) and end users. Take a look and let me know what you think. |
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So how will your build work? Is it compiled daily to reflect daily updates? Is it stable builds compiled without the adware? I would want to know more information before I just download a random ClickOnce application. |
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Basically, each time I pull code from the main repo into my fork, the build process will trigger and update/sign the artifacts. So, if you run the application, it will automatically check for updated bits from the source website and download them. And yes, without ANY adware, because ClickOnce takes care of the setup and I don't even pack the infected installer in my distribution. Regarding the 'random' application, hyvart.com is my site, so you can take my word that any content there is safe (I may eventually sign the app, if that helps at all). |
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OK, I am just being cautious. Lots of hacking and malware and stuff going around lately. 😨 |
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This should be merged. |
@PFCKrutonium It won't, though 😞 |
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@PFCKrutonium You can use EmuCR builds or you can also use @JunielKatarn 's builds, of course. But you can also compile them yourself, which is faster and has the added benefit of being able to debug the application as well. |
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Yeah apparently there is no adware, just directions in the installer to connect online and fetch random surveys to download adware. Which amuses me because I can't get Internet on this laptop to work with Windows anymore anyway. Couldn't infect myself even if I tried. So yeah. If any of you have internet issues like I do, you're probably wondering wth this PR even is. |
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@cxd4 Oh, I see. You are just having Windows-specific problems then? I would think by now most people would know not to click ads in installers...But then again Internet Explorer security issues along with Java and Flash is still a huge problem, so I guess it will always be like that. 😆 |
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Is this still a thing? (Screenshot is taken from Chrome OSX) The downloads page is cautioned by Chrome now. |
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It is indeed still a thing. |
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@GB-CG You can download a up to date build at http://hyvart.com/download/project64/ci/, or use a crapware-free installer at http://hyvart.com/download/project64/project64dev.application. |
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@JunielKatarn Thank you. But for OSX, v2.2 settings pane still yet to be fixed by WineHQ, so I'll just stick with v2.1 and below. But thanks anyway. |
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It's happening! Thank you, really. |
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WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING WHEN YOU PUT ADWARE IN THE INSTALLER BACK IN 2013!? THE DAMAGE WAS ALREADY DONE!! I'M NEVER DOWNLOADING PROJECT64 2.3 WHEN IT COMES OUT SINCE I DON'T TRUST NEW VERSIONS ANYMORE!! I'M STILL PISSED OFF WHEN PEOPLE HAD VIRUSES FROM THE INSTALLER!! JABO DIDN'T WANT TO BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT!! I'M AVOIDING PROJECT64 VERSIONS 2.X LIKE THE PLAGUE NOW!!! SHIT!!! WHAT THE HELL WAS THIS DECADE GOOD FOR ANYWAY!? WHY BAD THINGS HAPPEN DURING THE FIRST HALF!! THIS DECADE WAS HORRIBLE!!! WAS KARMA A BITCH!? NOBODY WAS STILL HAPPY ABOUT IT WHEN MALWARE WAS REMOVED IN THE INSTALLER!! THE 2.X VERSIONS WAS NOTHING BUT A BETA JUST LIKE VERSION 1.7.0.50 WHICH WAS ALSO A BETA!! I SHALL NOT FORGIVE ANYONE FOR PUTTING A MALWARE IN THE INSTALLER AS SUCH!!! SHIT!!! MUPEN64PLUS NEEDS AN OFFICIAL GUI!!! I'M NEVER USING PROJECT64 AGAIN!!! I'M DELETING MY ACCOUNT AFTER THIS POST TOMORROW!!! GOODBYE!!! I HATE YOU ALL!!! THIS DECADE SUCKED!!! YOU CAN KEEP YOUR FUCKING MALWARE IN THE INSTALLER!!! |
ok |
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