Comment by teh_klev | Hacker News Reader

Comment by teh_klev | Hacker News Reader

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I'll put this comment here as a response to sibling and child comments about Paint.NET and to defend the author (Rick Brewster) regarding misleading installers.

Rick has had numerous problems over time with scammers wrapping Paint.NET with scumbag installers and with "backspaceware" distributions. He's documented these issues in his blog:

http://blog.getpaint.net/2009/11/06/a-new-license-for-paintn...

http://blog.getpaint.net/2007/12/04/freeware-authors-beware-...

http://blog.getpaint.net/2011/10/03/paint-net-v3-5-9-and-dow...

http://blog.getpaint.net/2010/12/22/photoshop-filters-and-mo...

For as long as I've used Paint.NET (since v1) his home page and download page have never obfuscated or tried to lure users into downloading and installing crapware.

EDIT: Just turned off my adblocker and see I'm sadly very wrong about the crapware download ads. My other points still stand though.

you're probably using adblock then.

homepage: right below his link (paint.net 4.0...) is a "GET IT HERE" picture add which installs crapware

download page: pig green banner "START DOWNLOAD" above his text link for the download.

Oh, I see your point. about the ads (just turned off uBlock), makes me sad to see that :( It used to be much cleaner than that. I'd be interested to know how much control he has over those.

He has total control. Its his website, he has made the choice to work with scummy advertisers for a larger cut. Make no mistake: He could choose to run adverts that are not immoral and are not pushing malware, and in return he would earn slightly less money.

I have no sympathy whatsoever for him - he's directly benefiting from the same scummy industry he's complaining about.

Wow. I really admired that product, back when I used Windows. That's pretty sad, Paint.NET was doubtlessly a lot of hard work to create, and it's name now besmirched with this bad decision.

I've also been using Paint.NET since v1. It's always had the crapware links.

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