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Adware is not freeware, right?

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tranglos:
Adware is not freeware, right? Never has been, has it? In the beginning, adware makers did try hard to make it a norm to brand their merchandise as free, but they were kicked out and laughed out of court, so to speak (the court of public opinion in this case). Since then, adware is adware, free is free, and we've been living happily ever after.

So why is is suddenly acceptable to call Android adware "free"? 99% of "free" apps on Android Market are adware, though you wouldn't know it from the market descriptions, screenshots or any blogs that recommend the software. Even Wikipedia apps show ads, though I doubt any of the proceeds go to the Wikimedia Foundation.

Seems we may have won a battle but are losing the war. I hate my smartphone today.

mahesh2k:
"Fradware".

Before someone takes credit for this new word, let me own it legally.  :D

mouser:
I'm afraid it's even worse than you are describing :(

I don't have a problem with adware advertised as adware.

But it's not just that ad-supported software is becoming the accepted synonym with "free", it's that we are moving to a time where the entire software ecosystem, which used to have different domains like adware, freeware, opensource, shareware, commercial software, is all being compressed and nudged down into a single monolithic model where software and websites can't survive unless they are "free", but all make their money through ads or some other indirect convoluted mechanism.

We may look back with fond memories on the days when we could simply buy and own the things we want.

tranglos:
I'm afraid it's even worse than you are describing :(
-mouser (December 23, 2011, 07:16 AM)
--- End quote ---

Yeah, except I refuse to use it. (One exception: Evernote, but that's only because it autosyncs with my phone, I'm not using it nearly enough to justify a paid account, and there are no ad-free alternatives that I know of with a PC desktop app..)

We may look back with fond memories on the days when we could simply buy and own the things we want.
-mouser (December 23, 2011, 07:16 AM)
--- End quote ---

I'm not seeing much of a downslide on the Windows side, thankfully, and I dread you could prove me wrong. But whenever a new platform is introduced, it comes with a fully-developed marketing mechanism. I was amazed that so may people would pay for junk like ringtones and wallpapers (or OMG, "robot gear" in Portal 2!), but it's their money.

What's sad/strange to me is that there is next to no backlash today. Even inexperienced Windows users know to avoid spyware and adware, and indeed they're mostly a thing of the past - but all the smartphone platforms are a new breeding ground for the worst rubbish, and we eat it all up. Tech gurus and other brilliant people have been explaining at least since mid-nineties that the net is not "like" television, but in the end people seem to accept the TV delivery model, with subscriptions, advertizing and all.

Yesterday I saw ads overlaid on a YouTube video for the first time. It was a user-made game walkthrough (that's how I check if I want to buy a game), and it shows semi-transparent ads in the lower third of the picture. In Chrome. I wonder if this is what the new Flash update was for.

tranglos:
Oh, look what just came up in Google Reader :-)

3 Easy Solutions to Remove Unwanted Android Ads

(not tested)

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