SourceForge accused of shackling GIMP in kinky adware

The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) has accused SourceForge of violating its open-sourcery by wrapping the popular graphics program in adware. GIMP's Google+ page says “It appears that SourceForge took over the control of the 'GIMP for Windows' account and is now distributing an ads-enabled installer of GIMP. They also …

[ppawel]

Sourceforge should die already

I cringe every time I have to download anything from there, not to mention visit some project's page. Why would anyone choose to use this for their project when there are alternatives like Github available is beyond me.

It's been irrelevant and a hindrance for years so just die a peaceful death...

[dotdavid]

Re: Sourceforge should die already

We should Sourceforget about it.

[Phuq Witt]

Re: Sourceforge should die already

Sourceforge and Gimp both. [and Inkscape]

I cringe every time I install a Linux distro and fire up one of the supposedly flagship Graphic Design apps.

Then I cheer myself up again by going online and reading some neckbeardery about how they're just exactly like Photoshop and Illustrator but FREEEE!1111!!!

[phil dude]

Re: Sourceforge should die already

@Phuq Witt:

"Heroes don't accept the world the way it is. They fight it". J. Wheedon.

P.

[Danny 14]

Re: Sourceforge should die already

paint.net will probably do for the majority of people.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Phuq Witt - Re: Sourceforge should die already

Envy that you have to pay a subscription for your beloved software ? As far as I can see from your post nobody forced you to use Gimp so why are you upsetting your stomach ?

[Anonymous Coward]

SoylentNews here

SourceForge is owned by Dice Holdings, Inc. which owns Slashdot. Monetizing properties by ruining them seems to be their forte.

[Hans 1]

1. Sourceforge: Trojan Horse purveyor

2. Gimp: Nobody in their right mind wants version 2.7+ because they did away with the cool "Save" dialog. Now, you have to export a eg JPG image to JPG, FFS. The user base complains, the authors say "Expert users wanted that 'feature' because they kept losing image quality when saving images to compressed GIF." (read that one again, yes, "EXPERT USERS")

So both suck!

[frank ly]

It took me all of ten seconds to figure out the new way of doing 'Save/Export' and I understand the advantages. Maybe I'm not 'in my right mind'. It was a long time ago; let it go.

[Sven Coenye]

I did let it go. The whole thing. I work mostly on groups of small files and this bug has put such a crimp on the workflow that it is no longer worth it.

There may be logic in the feature but the implementation is FUBAR.

For starters, the distinction between open/save and import/export is now broken. I.e. if I could use Open to get the file, I expect to be able to use Save to put it back. That is pretty much how every other piece of software works.

But worst of all, it induced an endless litany of dialogs. Not just when "saving", but originally also when closing as GIMP considered the file dirty unless saved it to its native format. The Overwrite kludge, IMHO, is a sign that this thing is broken.

And lastly, the export dialog does not retain settings. That's especially lovely if you're working on a batch of JPEGs as most settings are hidden from view.

[Anonymous Coward]

@hans

Don't like it ? Then fork it and let's see your efforts.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is no different to audio in Audacity and many, many other programs.

You open a file, say a Wav, it then become a project file once you start using it, so you can do roll backs, layers, cuts and pastes.

Once you are finished, you "export" the project file to a flat file.

So in that point, they were a little late in rolling it out.

[batfastad]

I sort of agree. It's the Overwrite rather than Save that got me at first. Even though you have overwritten the file, you still get prompted that changes are going to be discarded when you close.

Am I that bothered? Nah, I got on with my life.

GIMP is a superb bit of software, along with Inkscape and Scribus. They have been in my workflow for such a long time now and they enabled me to switch to Linux on my desktop a few years ago.

The only thing I end up firing up my old copy of CS2 for is CMYK in Potatoshop and Acrobat Pro/Distiller. There's no open source equivalent for heavy duty PDF manipulation. I'd chip in to a kickstarter big-style to get CMYK into GIMP and it will happen eventually, something about integrating the GEGL library or something last time I looked into it. They get a bit tetchy if you ask about CMYK in IRC :)

[theModge]

re: merrits of gimp

Gimp is pretty good, considering it's free. I wouldn't use it for pro-level graphic design, but, seemingly uniquely on the internet, I'm not actually a graphic designer for a living. My work does need me to chop things out of images occasionally, and it can do that competently.

Also note worthy in this line is UFRraw. Again, it's no lightroom, but I have a camera that's about 5 generations out of data (450D) and no one wants to pay me for my photos.

I'm well with those who wonder what purpose source forge fulfils in this day and age of github.

[CAPS LOCK]

It's the curse of Dice...

... '... and Death shall come on swift wings to Dice acquisitions...'

[fredsmith999]

abandonware

There are still gimp developers? The program is great but to be useful for work it needs the new features that have been promised for several years: adjustment layers, more than 8 bits per channel. These were promised about 2010. Really grateful but will there ever be another version?

[phil dude]

Re: abandonware

I don't know about other features but more than 8 bits per channel does exists. I needed it for some confocal microscope images I had taken with 10-bit channels from the intstrument.

I don't have the reference to hand, but I believe it did work.

P.

[Anonymous Coward]

Agree about version 2.7+

Tried to upgrade to 2.8 ages ago. Kept crashing.

Worked out a quick, simple way of reproducing the bug. Went to GIMP homepage to see if anyone else had reported it. No. Tried to find out how to report it.

Reporting it required creating an account, with a valid email address, which would be published. GIMP themselves warned that the email address would be scraped, and spammed to buggery almost immediately. But they insisted on publishing it because they were GIMP fuck you.

So attempting to contribute to an open-source project apparently requires being able to set up and administer your own mailserver.

Stick with 2.6.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Agree about version 2.7+

Guerrilamail is your friend.

https://www.guerrillamail.com/

[tempemeaty]

Sourceryforge

Crapware wrapped into the download is just more unprofessional garbage that reflects badly on sourceforge.

[Sceptic Tank]

Lost faith

I installed PDFCreator from SourceForge a while ago like I have done in the past. This time the installer additionally installed some piece of malware rubbish that hijacks the search engine in all browsers. Took some effort to find out how to get rid of it again (turns out you can just uninstall it from Programs and Features).

But after that my faith in SF was badly shaken. They just cannot be trusted anymore.

[John Gamble]

Yup, That's The End

Sourceforge was a bright star when it began (using Subversion as its version control system, a vast improvement over the then commonly used CSV). But changing the site to make it harder to follow code changes (but making it easier to be spammed) is the final nail in the coffin for me.

My only concern is that the number of source code management web sites isn't very large -- now that Sourceforge is over for me, that leaves only Github and Mercurial. Is there anything else that even approaches either site's functionality?

[nilfs2]

If you use Windows, you deserve the adware

After all, you chose the less secure OS out there

[Brent Longborough]

Seen it all before

Sourceforge is to Code as Geocities is to WebPresence.

Thank you for your attention.

[Dan 55]

Good monetising plan

1. Add adware installer wrappers to software.

2. Annoy end users.

3. Developers leave SourceForge.

4. Take over developers' accounts.

5. Add adware installer wrappers to newer versions of software now hosted elsewhere.

6. Annoy end users.

7. ???

8. Profit!