“SourceForge are (sic) abusing the trust that we and our users had put into their service in the past,” according to the GIMP project. Since 2013, SourceForge has been bundling junkware along with their installers — sometimes without a developer’s permission.
Be careful and avoid downloading software from SourceForge if you can help it. Many open-source projects now host their installers elsewhere, and the versions on SourceForge may include junkware. If you absolutely have to download something from SourceForge, be extra careful.
I know that this is gonna strike you and you're gonna be surprised but SourceForge has also turned now to the dark side. SourceForge elevated hopes of many people who were tired of the malware they received while downloading stuff from freeware software sites and certainly it built up a lot of goodwill in the past, being a centralized place for downloading open-source software and hosting software repositories. Over the years, more projects have moved to other repository-hosting services like GitHub.
In 2012, a company named Dice Holdings bought SourceForge (and Slashdot) from Geeknet. And in 2013, SourceForge enabled a feature named “DevShare.” DevShare is an opt-in feature developers can enable for their own projects. If a developer enables this feature, you’ll download their software from SourceForge to find that it’s been wrapped in SourceForge’s own installer, which pushes intrusive junkware onto your system. SourceForge and developers make money by foisting this software on you, just as practically every other download site and freeware distributor does on Windows.
Be careful and avoid downloading software from SourceForge if you can help it. Many open-source projects now host their installers elsewhere, and the versions on SourceForge may include junkware. If you absolutely have to download something from SourceForge, be extra careful.
I know that this is gonna strike you and you're gonna be surprised but SourceForge has also turned now to the dark side. SourceForge elevated hopes of many people who were tired of the malware they received while downloading stuff from freeware software sites and certainly it built up a lot of goodwill in the past, being a centralized place for downloading open-source software and hosting software repositories. Over the years, more projects have moved to other repository-hosting services like GitHub.
In 2012, a company named Dice Holdings bought SourceForge (and Slashdot) from Geeknet. And in 2013, SourceForge enabled a feature named “DevShare.” DevShare is an opt-in feature developers can enable for their own projects. If a developer enables this feature, you’ll download their software from SourceForge to find that it’s been wrapped in SourceForge’s own installer, which pushes intrusive junkware onto your system. SourceForge and developers make money by foisting this software on you, just as practically every other download site and freeware distributor does on Windows.
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