[Info-vax] SourceForge, was: Re: Using VMS for a web server

[Craig A. Berry]

On 6/3/15 10:26 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2015-06-04, Craig A. Berry <craigberry at nospam.mac.com> wrote:
>> On 6/3/15 8:01 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Be warned: given recent events,
>>
>> What events?
>>
>
> Sorry, I assumed this was now common knowledge.
>
> Start here and work backwards through the links to catch up:
>
> http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/06/03/126224/nmap-maintainer-warns-he-doesnt-control-nmap-sourceforge-mirror

Thanks. I had skimmed the headline on Ars Technica a couple days ago but
didn't see that there was any big deal.

>>> SF is rapidly getting blacklisted by
>>> people in general so telling technical people to download stuff from SF
>>> is not likely to go down well.
>>>
>>> The only thing I would currently trust from SF are the source code kits
>>> (but only if there were no other download source for them) and you won't
>>> catch me downloading those source code kits from a Windows system...
>>
>> Well, that's a shame. As I write this I'm preparing to upload binary
>> kits for OpenVMS of the latest release of Perl to SourceForge. You seem
>> to be saying I shouldn't do this but I have no idea why.
>>
>
> OpenVMS binaries probably are ok, but given the huge backlash the actions
> of the current SF owners have caused, SF itself is getting boycotted
> in certain (ever increasing) circles.
>
> As for the will not download from Windows system reference above, search
> the above nmap story for "fake download". The claim is that SF are
> presenting what appear to be fake download buttons in come cases
> alongside the genuine ones.

As far as I can tell, what they did is only incrementally more evil than
all the ads and crapware they've always pushed and is identical to what
companies like Oracle with Java and Adobe with Flash routinely do. If
you aren't paying careful attention during the install, you don't see
the checkboxes preselected that will install extra doodads that you
might not want.

SF has always had extra ad-related crud. Typically when you start a
download you are then presented with another Download button an inch
high that is for something completely unrelated. I don't like it but
there aren't many places one can publish binaries; GitHub did away with
downloads and code.google.com did the same and is now shutting down
entirely.