Author Topic: Ad Muncher 5 will be free (Read 51,126 times)

J-Mac · « **on:** June 26, 2014, 05:10 AM »

After five or six years of promising the vaunted Ad Muncher Version 5 - which would cover almost all of the current deficiencies in Ad Muncher, Murray Hurps has decided to offer Ad Muncher free of charge to all who want it. Also he blogged that V5 will include both Android and iOS mobile versions. His blog post making this announcement is here.

For two days prior to this announcement Hurps blogged about the imminent release of V.5 along with hints about an upcoming "Big Announcement", which is - I imagine - making AM free.

Personally I'm not certain how I feel about this. I can't help but to think that this will mean future development will be very limited, if it exists at all. Hurps claims he will afford this change as follows:

Quote

This will be financially difficult for me. Salaries for three people, along with our usual expenses, will be covered entirely by myself by selling almost everything I have, and taking on some external work.

That's scary enough, but his next comment is even scarier:

Quote

At some point in the future, I may need to offer complimentary software products to Ad Muncher users (for example, a recommended spyware blocker or antivirus).

So it remains to be seen how this all will shake out.

Jim

mwb1100 · « **Reply #1 on:** June 26, 2014, 05:35 AM »

Yeah - this is a strange announcement. I hope it turns out OK; I rather like Ad Muncher.

Jibz · « **Reply #2 on:** June 26, 2014, 06:28 AM »

That is quite surprising. I can imagine it must be very hard to compete with the free browser plug-in solutions, which have the added benefit of being able to filter https. But still, surprising to go to the other extreme. I hope he can keep it clean from crapware.

On a side note, when reading the title of this thread I considered for a second if "Free Software Program" meant free or GPL. I am slightly worried to find the meaning of the word "free" has become ambiguous to me.

Ennovy · « **Reply #3 on:** June 26, 2014, 07:32 AM »

Today Murray Hurps announced that version 5 of Ad Muncher will be free:

http://www.murrayhurps.com/blog/ad-muncher-announcement

This is the first public demonstration of Ad Muncher version 5: http://www.murrayhurps.com/blog/ad-muncher-version-5

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #4 on:** June 26, 2014, 09:02 AM »

Quote from: Jibz on June 26, 2014, 06:28 AM

But still, surprising to go to the other extreme. I hope he can keep it clean from crapware.

Well, his next line down is "I will never, ever accept payments from an advertising company to allow their ads through our list, or install any third-party software on your system."

I'll particularly be interested in seeing if the iOS version is pretty good. I don't do much browsing on my phone because there's no ad____ stuff I know of for Safari and I haven't tried too hard to scour for an obscure browser that might have ad blocking in it.

But people are all about the apps these days, and the rash is free versions with ads, to tempt you into the paid versions without them. It would be fascinating if AdMuncher could intercept that "Apple Ad" serving engine or whatever it is called.

Jibz · « **Reply #5 on:** June 26, 2014, 09:21 AM »

Quote from: TaoPhoenix on June 26, 2014, 09:02 AM

I'll particularly be interested in seeing if the iOS version is pretty good. I don't do much browsing on my phone because there's no ad____ stuff I know of for Safari and I haven't tried too hard to scour for an obscure browser that might have ad blocking in it.

But people are all about the apps these days, and the rash is free versions with ads, to tempt you into the paid versions without them. It would be fascinating if AdMuncher could intercept that "Apple Ad" serving engine or whatever it is called.

There is probably some TOS that prohibits apps from blocking advertisement, like on android.

Tuxman · « **Reply #6 on:** June 26, 2014, 10:26 AM »

As someone who has run AM4 in the past, I'm really looking forward to version 5.

I hope he'll accept donations though.

mouser · « **Reply #7 on:** June 26, 2014, 01:41 PM »

Merged topics.

rgdot · « **Reply #8 on:** June 26, 2014, 03:32 PM »

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

For Ad Muncher 5.2 there will be a cryptic announcement to use alternatives

Tuxman · « **Reply #9 on:** June 26, 2014, 05:08 PM »

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ad Muncher makes you Not So Ad-free....

MilesAhead · « **Reply #10 on:** June 26, 2014, 07:45 PM »

I don't remember trying it. When it goes free perhaps I'll satisfy my curiosity. So I take it that it only eats ads when it's hungry?

Innuendo · « **Reply #11 on:** June 29, 2014, 03:11 PM »

I used to be one of Ad Muncher's biggest supporters. There was a time when it was the ultimate piece of software and its author could do no wrong. Unfortunately, missing features, broken promises, release dates being perpetually pushed back, the author disappearing for well over a year and the crummy treatment of customers when they dare to ask difficult questions has eaten away all that good will.

About a month or two ago I discovered AdGuard. The current release version is pretty good, but the beta version is where it's at. As a bonus, people who volunteer to be beta testers get free licenses so there's been no entry fee for me yet.

So far I like what I see. It's as good as Ad Muncher *used* to be. It supports gzip, https, and all the other things that Ad Muncher's been promising for years and won't/can't deliver. This version 5 of Ad Muncher will have to fairly spectacular for me to entertain thoughts of going back. Forget for a second the promises of it being free. It's *still* been in development for 6 years and no one has seen so much as a screenshot or a feature list yet. Anyone can promise something's going to be free if it's never going to exist. Maybe General Motors should promise that the 2015 Pontiac GTO will be free when it's released as well.

Josh · « **Reply #12 on:** June 29, 2014, 03:17 PM »

I think my biggest issue with this, aside from the whole potential advertisement of third party products later on, is that the only way this information has been disseminated is via Murray's blog. Why is this information not on the Ad Muncher front page? What about an email to previous purchasers? What about a newsletter being sent out via the list I signed up for previously? My thought is that it is because they want people to continue to buy licenses for v4 until v5 is released. I can understand this from a sales and business perspective, but the problem with that is that there are people making a purchasing decision based on incomplete information. What happens to the guy who buys a lifetime license a week before the product goes live? OK, they have a 30-day refund policy, but what about someone who purchased 31 days prior? What about the casual buyer who does not check the forums to see the topic, of which there is no OFFICIALLY POSTED topic, that the users have created regarding the announcement? If I were a new purchaser who found out the product is now free after dropping over $100 for a lifetime license, I would be EXTREMELY pissed and would demand a refund.

Just my two cents but this announcement should be on the product homepage or should have been withheld until he was ready to not receive new orders.

Innuendo · « **Reply #13 on:** July 01, 2014, 11:29 AM »

Josh, this is only one more mis-step in a long line of mis-steps. It's like any other disaster. People's attention are captivated by the drama, but as time goes on they get numb to the misfortune playing out and walk away shaking their heads.

Right now as far as anyone knows, Ad Muncher v5 is merely a tortured vision in Murray's cow-addled mind with no basis at all in reality. No one has seen a product roadmap, a UI mock-up, or the now infamous demo video he was supposedly made months ago of Ad Muncher v5 in action. The biggest news on his blog is a post announcing his research findings regarding toast sweat.

No. I'm serious.

Josh · « **Reply #14 on:** July 10, 2014, 02:54 PM »

It appears they are still sending out "renewal" notices to customers on yearly plans. The emails DO NOT mention that their product will soon be free.

Why does this seem unethical to me?

Josh · « **Reply #15 on:** July 29, 2014, 12:44 PM »

And now the plot thickens: Jeff is stating that v5 is NOT COMING SOON

He waited over a month to reply to the thread on their forums with this info. Sounds like v5 is still a ways off...if at all...

Tuxman · « **Reply #16 on:** July 29, 2014, 12:47 PM »

Well... I bought AdGuard for now. HTTPS support seems to be mandatory these days.

mwb1100 · « **Reply #17 on:** July 29, 2014, 05:15 PM »

Quote from: Tuxman on July 29, 2014, 12:47 PM

Well... I bought AdGuard for now. HTTPS support seems to be mandatory these days.

Let us know how you like it after you've had a bit of time with it.

Ad Muncher is still working pretty well for me so far, but I'd like to stay informed on possible alternatives should things deteriorate.

Tuxman · « **Reply #18 on:** July 29, 2014, 06:17 PM »

AdGuard is nice and its "overlay" is more reliable than that of Ad Muncher IMO. (Also, the UI looks a bit better, but then again, Ad Muncher 5 looked OK on older Windows systems too. AdGuard's tray menu has a blurry font on Win8.1 for me.)

Filtering has some issues yet, such as banners not being detected correctly, but there's a "report banner" function.

Innuendo · « **Reply #19 on:** August 02, 2014, 01:24 PM »

Disclaimer: I'm running the latest AdGuard beta.

I signed up for their beta program anticipating having to make a lot of bug reports and I've really been surprised. It's cleaned up my web browsing experience. Very few ads/banners missed and the ability to use Adblock filter lists is a welcome addition.

Don't know what's going on with your system tray menu. Adguard's is just as clear as every other menu sitting in my tray.

J-Mac · « **Reply #20 on:** August 02, 2014, 01:31 PM »

I think I might have to give AdGuard a try. I am tired of waiting for AdMuncher to work on https: websites.

Thanks.

Jim

Tuxman · « **Reply #21 on:** August 02, 2014, 09:07 PM »

Recommended!

Innuendo · « **Reply #22 on:** August 02, 2014, 11:18 PM »

Quote from: J-Mac on August 02, 2014, 01:31 PM

I think I might have to give AdGuard a try. I am tired of waiting for AdMuncher to work on https: websites.

AdGuard isn't perfect....

BUT...

It's much better than what Ad Muncher has become these days. Ad Muncher would miss a *lot* of stuff it should have been catching when I was using it.

And now that I think about it...if they are going to make a version of the Ad Muncher 4.x code that is free why don't they just release a registration code to enable the current version to be free instead of letting the money keep rolling in?

Tuxman · « **Reply #23 on:** August 03, 2014, 09:36 AM »

Because they are a company and need to set up things first.

Tuxman · « **Reply #24 on:** August 03, 2014, 10:47 AM »

AdGuard 5.9 blocks Firefox add-on downloads (and Twitter).

edit: seems to be fixed in 5.10 beta. Or it was my fault initially.