[SEL] Spyware & Freeware (Correction)

Arnie Fero fero_ah at city-net.com
Tue Jan 11 06:05:13 PST 2005


Hi Bill,

On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 bill at antique-engines.com wrote:

> Watch out - some "anti-spyware" out there is actually spyware in itself -
> it installs some of the very stuff you get it to remove!
> How in the world do people think that someone can release FREE software?
> Uh-huh - it's supported by marketing and advertising - "spyware" that it
> installs.
> EVEN spyware removers in some cases install adware and spyware!

Interesting comment.  Can you provide some specific examples?

> There is pretty much no such thing as REAL free software.

I beg to differ.  http://www.tucows.com and http://www.gnu.org

These are a couple of the oldest and most widely used resources on the
net.  Gnu software is nearly universal in the Unix and Linux worlds.

Do any of these ring a bell?  Adobe Reader, Irfan View, Spybot,
Ad-Aware, Linux, etc.  There's even a widely used term to describe it;
"Freeware".

I think in a fit of Messianic zeal, you may have over-generalized.
Despite the popularity of the expression TANSTAAFL, _sometimes_ there is.

See ya,  Arnie

Arnie Fero
Pittsburgh, PA
fero_ah at city-net.com



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