I was bored today. Did I do anything particularly productive?
Nah.
I formatted my hard drive and re installed my operating system. Y'know, to make it FASTER.
I do that about as often as I brush my teeth, so about everything three months. People think it's a huge pain in the ass but now a days the only applications I have to re install are Adobe CS and uTorrent.
That damn uTorrent. It's always been my go to torrent client. I'm one of those people who is never happy with an original application, I'm always on the hunt for something better, faster, stronger. Not I have to listen to Daft Punk, excuse me while I go re install iTunes. ;)
In high school it was AIM and IRC clients. I'd have as many as five separate clients, just to see which one I liked best. I was never happy though, and I was switched around. Not with torrent clients. Aside from uTorrent, the only other client I've used was the original. I never liked any of the other ones, they seemed too bulky. uTorrent was the best, to me, for some odd reason. I would download and install without care. It never failed me.
Not anymore.
After my most recent install I noticed some silly "Win Zip Registry Cleaner" and crappy toolbar in my browser. I freaked. That doesn't happen to me. I'm not that guy.
At least I wasn't, until uTorrent betrayed me.
I'm an open source type of dude, but there are a few things I understand to be true about this wonderful country and silly ol' capitalism. Whats that? You want me to share them with you? Well, OKAY!
1) You can make money doing things that don't need to be done
2) If you don't make money off something, someone else will.
Open source and freeware are so complicated. The amount of time and energy it takes to program a full application is astounding, and the fact that someone would buy your program makes it that much more rewarding. And here you have people that disagree with the crazy price points companies set, and thus tell them to go "fuck off" and write their own programs.
There is a free version of practically every piece of software I've ever wanted to use. In my day to day workflow, I use a majority of the Adobe Creative Suite. I know for a fact there is a very alternative to every piece of software in that said suite. That is amazing. If I had the time to sit down and learn Inkscape (Alternative to Illustrator. Check it out! http://inkscape.org/) I really would. Same thing with GIMP (Free Photoshop alternative, here ya go! http://www.gimp.org/) And if it weren't for Google totally destroying Microsoft Office, I'd probably be using some version of OpenOffice. Not to mention my boss pays for and requires me to know Adobe and not freeware products, so, y'know...
I still think prices for software are crazy, and yet, I understand how they justify it.
Years and years ago, Microsoft Office was a BUSINESS application suite. It would make sense to charge a million dollar business a couple of grand for your applications. After all, you want to be a million dollar business too, right?
Not anymore. All sorts of people use computers now. Rich people, poor people, middle of the road people. Unless you've been in the computer game for more than ten years, you're going to think software prices are ridiculous. So what do you do if your a small start up, with a small application, but big dreams? Well you do one of two things:
1) Let anyone download your program for free and let anyone use it. Hooray Linux!
2) You charge a little bit of money that virtually NO ONE will pay because they will either pirate it or find a free version of the same type of software.
It is a tough world out there for the small time programmer, but in the days of iPods and iPhones, things are looking up, but not in the desktop application world.
So I totally lied before. There is a third option. You can put ads INSIDE your program, or attach ANOTHER program that installs a toolbar in your web browser and some crappy adware for a quick buck.
I noticed the ad in the corner of the application the last time I downloaded it. Not that big of a deal. Its unobtrusive, and I don't have the application actually open enough for it to bother me. It just sits there, collecting money for whoever, where ever they are.
I must have not payed attention to the EULA (who does?!) and must have missed somewhere to uncheck the box for the toolbar/adware installation. Or maybe they just install it anyway. I don't know, I didn't go back and look. Even IF I was given the option, I still feel I was betrayed.
There are all sorts of applications out there that do absolutely jack shit, and they are made for the sole purpose of adding the toolbar/adware combo to generate money for whoever, where ever they are. That is it, that is all the do. Fake games, or maybe they are real games, I don't know. I don't know because I don't download that garbage, and anyone who does really needs to take a step back and re-learn the internet.
Those things scream at you, "HEY! I'M ADWARE!!! DON'T DOWNLOAD ME!". The standard IT junkie blows right past them, barely phased. We all know who falls victim to these: our mothers. Every single person reading this knows. Even if your mother is dead, she still downloaded a toolbar and installed some adware. She is probably bugging Heaven's IT guy about it right now. I wonder what kind of spam they get in Heaven?
Even those type of programs, I understand. Good for you, random programmer, you're trying to make some money! As illicit as they are, that same person could be out robbing your mother for her purse. Instead he is inside, programming toolbars that you have to uninstall, so he just robbing you of time.
But I have no respect for those types of applications, obviously. They are made to serve that purpose and that purpose only.
So why, with a track record so immaculate (at least to me) go and screw it up? Why add it to your program? Are you hurting that much? Maybe it's time to think about a day job. Do they even make that much money? What do you think they get for a toolbar install? A buck?
This isn't the first time this has happened. A program is free to download, quick to install and ready to go. Then a new version comes out, and they sneak that toolbar in.
Boom. That program is dead to me.
I immediately start searching for an application to replace it. No program is going to tell me what search engine I need to use! The last time I recall this happening was with the original BitTorrent client. You know what my reaction was? I downloaded uTorrent.
If I was in the meeting discussing whether or not to add that tripe I would vote against it. I'd make the argument that while generating money, you'll probably lose thousands of users. So is it really worth it?
RIP uTorrent (sometime I don't remember-4/10/2013)
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