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What the hell is OpenCandy?
mouser:
well i agree in general with what you are saying -- i don't want to see desktop applications start to do all kinds of tracking like websites do.. that would be horrible.
but it's just hard for me to get upset by the idea of an installer telling a server when a user chooses to install a recommended additional program or not.. of all the privacy concerns this is just really really low on my list of concerns.
having said that, like i said before i personally wouldn't use an installer that connected to a remote server to send information -- just because regardless of how harmless it is, i wouldn't want to risk alienating users.
rgdot:
I agree with the overall assertion like mouser posted and I alluded to in this thread. The result for the end user is very little different than tool bars and the likes that come with multitude of downloads. OpenCandy is offering a secondary mechanism behind the scenes that manifests itself a bit differently for the user. Of course as suggested it is better if the end user can refuse the OpenCandy registry/folder stuff but really the difference between existing software 'bundles' is not all that much.
mouser:
i'm inclined to view the toolbar bundles as much much worse. first, they are often opt-out (that is, checked by default) -- which is EVIL. second, these toolbar things incorporate themselves into other programs (browser, etc.) and can be more difficult to uninstall.
rgdot:
@mouser, in that sense you are right, I mean Yahoo messenger installed the toolbar for me even though I clearly unchecked it. So yes there are sneaky ways to get the stuff in or make uninstall difficult but when you are given the choice at install to accept or unaccept and your choices are followed then the difference is not much, the way I see it.
kartal:
ok here is my bet, I am putting my 100$ if anyone wants to bet on it.
I am %100$ sure that in 2 years OC will become an application that will try to install hidden stuff and spy on your download-installation activity. If anyone wants to bet I am accepting bets. Since we do not want to gamble lets keep the amount not more than 100$.
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