XPost: alt.comp.freeware, alt.privacy

While aphorisms have truth deeply embedded, more often than not they don't.
"There�s no such thing as a free lunch."
"You get what you pay for."
"Cheap is expensive."
"If you're not paying for the product, you are the product."
"When something is free, ask what it's costing you in privacy."
"Convenience of freeware is just surveillance in disguise."
"Privacy is dead, and free social media holds the smoking gun."

What examples of freeware do you feel meet or do not meet these aphorisms?
I'll start.

Irfanview meet my freeware & privacy expectations.
Vpngate.net does not.

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XPost: alt.comp.freeware, alt.privacy

Marion wrote:

What examples of freeware do you feel meet or do not meet these aphorisms?

There is too much free/open ware to do this.

In my world, virtually all of the ware is open source. While I don't
have the skills to examine ANY of that source, the transparency makes it available to the masses who do have the skills.

But much of what you are dealing w/ here is free *services*, which is a significantly different thing than free software, particularly different
than free software which is also open source.

Also, the open source world is considerably more complex because of the licensing structure which applies to it.

--
Mike Easter

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XPost: alt.comp.freeware, alt.privacy

Marion <[email protected]> wrote:

"If you're not paying for the product, you are the product."

If you are paying for a product, you still are just data cattle.

MS, Google, Apple, Tesla, ... and lots of others are known to spy on you despite having paid them.

--
3. Hitchhiker 1: (25) "The point is, you see," said Ford, "that there
is no point in driving yourself mad trying to stop yourself going mad.
You might just as well give in and save your sanity for later."

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XPost: alt.comp.freeware, alt.privacy

On Mon, 1 Sep 2025 08:28:24 -0700, Mike Easter wrote :

Marion wrote:

What examples of freeware do you feel meet or do not meet these aphorisms?

There is too much free/open ware to do this.

True. Irfanview is my top-most favorite.
What's yours?

In my world, virtually all of the ware is open source. While I don't
have the skills to examine ANY of that source, the transparency makes it available to the masses who do have the skills.

Yup. I'm an octogenarian who has *never* paid for anything on Windows or Android or iOS other than TurboTax (although my company paid for Acrobat,
MS Office, etc., which I still use since the older versions work fine).

But much of what you are dealing w/ here is free *services*, which is a significantly different thing than free software, particularly different
than free software which is also open source.

True. Vpngate.net is a free service. Good catch. So is Psiphon5.
Thanks for pointing that out.

Also, the open source world is considerably more complex because of the licensing structure which applies to it.

I never really understood the "free as in free beer" aphorism since what matters to me only is that it's legitimately free for me to use it.

An example is ffmpeg vs lame, which were free for me to use but may be encumbered with licenses that I didn't care to even bother to understand.

With all that in mind, there is value to the group for us to answer this... What is the one finest piece of Windows-based freeware that you enjoy most?

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XPost: alt.comp.freeware, alt.privacy

On 09/01/2025 12:05 PM, yeti wrote:

Marion <[email protected]> wrote:

"If you're not paying for the product, you are the product."

If you are paying for a product, you still are just data cattle.

MS, Google, Apple, Tesla, ... and lots of others are known to spy on you despite having paid them.

I have used the Adobe Reader for years. I do not use any of the extras
that are provided. I am satisfied.

One program that I have also used for years is Snycback Free. No
charge, and it has preformed reliably for me for years.

I also use CutePDFwriter. It is free, and again is an esential part of
my computer.

I agree the Irfanview is a great program, but in addition there are
several plugins for Irfanview that are free. The one I use most is
Tesseract OCR

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XPost: alt.comp.freeware, alt.privacy

On 2025/9/1 17:2:59, Marion wrote:

On Mon, 1 Sep 2025 08:28:24 -0700, Mike Easter wrote :

Marion wrote:

What examples of freeware do you feel meet or do not meet these aphorisms? >>

There is too much free/open ware to do this.

True. Irfanview is my top-most favorite.
What's yours?

Certainly, IrfanView - and its plugins, like the lossless JPEG rotate
and crop, and the OCR - come to my mind first. I have to think a bit
then, but I think the two suites - Mark Russinovitch (sysinternals) and
NirSoft - must come high.

[]

Also, the open source world is considerably more complex because of the
licensing structure which applies to it.

I never really understood the "free as in free beer" aphorism since what matters to me only is that it's legitimately free for me to use it.

It bugs me a little, too, not sure why: possibly because the expression
"free beer" isn't common in UK. But what they mean is to distinguish
between the two meanings of free (as applied to "free to use"): free as
in costs nothing, and free as in usable without restriction.>

An example is ffmpeg vs lame, which were free for me to use but may be encumbered with licenses that I didn't care to even bother to understand.

I get pleasure from WinAmp and VLC, but I'm not sure what spying they do.>

With all that in mind, there is value to the group for us to answer this... What is the one finest piece of Windows-based freeware that you enjoy most?

Can't just pick one! IrfanView, yt-dlp, WinAmo, VLC, BitMeter2, Noisy
Keyboard, Noisy Mouse, Macrium Reflect Free, Remove Empty Directories
(RED), FreeFileSync, CrystalDiskInfo, even Thunderbird, _old_ versions
of Foxit and Acrobat, ClockSmith Lite, Classic Shell ...
Some of those I enjoy using, some I enjoy their results, or knowing that
they have run (or are running) well. Some in combination, of course.

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

They are public servants, so we will threat them rather as Flashman
treats servants. - Stephen Fry on some people's attitudo to the BBC, in
Radio Times, 3-9 July 2010

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XPost: alt.comp.freeware

On 01/09/2025 16:04, Marion wrote:

While aphorisms have truth deeply embedded, more often than not they don't.
"There¢s no such thing as a free lunch."
"You get what you pay for."
"Cheap is expensive."
"If you're not paying for the product, you are the product."
"When something is free, ask what it's costing you in privacy."
"Convenience of freeware is just surveillance in disguise."
"Privacy is dead, and free social media holds the smoking gun."

What examples of freeware do you feel meet or do not meet these aphorisms? I'll start.

Irfanview meet my freeware & privacy expectations.
Vpngate.net does not.

Free, as in beer, is an idea thought up by those who think they are intellectually superior. In my case they probably are but I'm not dumb
enough to fall for their trick.

Free means free to use at no cost.
A free travel pass doesn't entitle you to drive the vehicle.

--
Regards
wasbit

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XPost: alt.comp.freeware

On 01/09/2025 16:04, Marion wrote:

While aphorisms have truth deeply embedded, more often than not they don't.
"There¢s no such thing as a free lunch."
"You get what you pay for."
"Cheap is expensive."
"If you're not paying for the product, you are the product."
"When something is free, ask what it's costing you in privacy."
"Convenience of freeware is just surveillance in disguise."
"Privacy is dead, and free social media holds the smoking gun."

What examples of freeware do you feel meet or do not meet these aphorisms? I'll start.

Irfanview meet my freeware & privacy expectations.
Vpngate.net does not.

Why oh why is alt.privacy included ?????


Windows System Control Centre (WSCC)
- http://www.kls-soft.com/wscc/

Contains the complete suites of tools from:
Nirsoft
Sysinternals
MiTec (Michael Mutl)
GRC (Gibson research)
Krzysztof Kowalczyk (Sumatra PDF)
Pete Batard (Rufus & more)
Simon Tatham (PuTTy & more)
Void Tools (David Carpenter - Everything)

Sysinternals (Mark Russinovich/Bryce Cogswell, now Microsoft)
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/
Nir Sofer (http://www.nirsoft.net)
Gibson Research Corporation (http://www.grc.com)
Krzysztof Kowalczyk (https://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/index.html)
Simon Tatham (https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham)
David Carpenter (https://voidtools.com)
Pete Batard (https://pete.akeo.ie/)
Michal Mutl (http://mitec.cz)

• portable
• user controlled update manager
• console.

One of my favourite free programmes despite the fact that it only gets
used sporadically.


--
Regards
wasbit

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XPost: alt.comp.freeware

On 02/09/2025 09:42, wasbit wrote:

On 01/09/2025 16:04, Marion wrote:

While aphorisms have truth deeply embedded, more often than not they
don't.
  "There¢s no such thing as a free lunch."
  "You get what you pay for."
  "Cheap is expensive."
  "If you're not paying for the product, you are the product."
  "When something is free, ask what it's costing you in privacy."
  "Convenience of freeware is just surveillance in disguise."
  "Privacy is dead, and free social media holds the smoking gun."

What examples of freeware do you feel meet or do not meet these
aphorisms?
I'll start.

  Irfanview meet my freeware & privacy expectations.
  Vpngate.net does not.

Free, as in beer, is an idea thought up by those who think they are intellectually superior. In my case they probably are but I'm not dumb
enough to fall for their trick.

Free means free to use at no cost.
A free travel pass doesn't entitle you to drive the vehicle.

"Those who think they are intellectually superior" is a neat way to sum
up the situation. Even Stallman and the FSF admit there are only minor differences between their "free" and everyone else's "open source"
licence. The vast majority of developers, websites and users refer to
the products as open source because it avoids confusion - and the
nonsense debate about the meaning of "free".

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XPost: alt.comp.freeware

On Tue, 2 Sep 2025 09:33:02 +0100, wasbit wrote :

Irfanview meet my freeware & privacy expectations.
Vpngate.net does not.

Why oh why is alt.privacy included ?????

Actually, there is good reason for privacy in terms of freeware because one
of the most common, if not most common complaint about freeware is said as
"if you're not paying for the product, then you are the product".

Just to be clear, anyone who "says" that crap is always stupid, as they
think there is some kind of profound science involved - but they say it.

Wouldn't it be a good joke on us, for example, if VLC or Irfanview turned
out to be run by a TLA who was harvesting all our media playing activity.

Windows System Control Centre (WSCC)
- http://www.kls-soft.com/wscc/

Contains the complete suites of tools from:
Nirsoft
Sysinternals
MiTec (Michael Mutl)
GRC (Gibson research)
Krzysztof Kowalczyk (Sumatra PDF)
Pete Batard (Rufus & more)
Simon Tatham (PuTTy & more)
Void Tools (David Carpenter - Everything)

Sysinternals (Mark Russinovich/Bryce Cogswell, now Microsoft)
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/
Nir Sofer (http://www.nirsoft.net)
Gibson Research Corporation (http://www.grc.com)
Krzysztof Kowalczyk (https://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/index.html)
Simon Tatham (https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham)
David Carpenter (https://voidtools.com)
Pete Batard (https://pete.akeo.ie/)
Michal Mutl (http://mitec.cz)

portable
user controlled update manager
console.

One of my favourite free programmes despite the fact that it only gets
used sporadically.

Oh wow. That's a neat collection!
Thanks for pitching in!

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XPost: alt.comp.freeware

On 02/09/2025 16:54, Marion wrote:

On Tue, 2 Sep 2025 09:33:02 +0100, wasbit wrote :

Irfanview meet my freeware & privacy expectations.
Vpngate.net does not.

Why oh why is alt.privacy included ?????

Actually, there is good reason for privacy in terms of freeware because one of the most common, if not most common complaint about freeware is said as
"if you're not paying for the product, then you are the product".

Just to be clear, anyone who "says" that crap is always stupid, as they
think there is some kind of profound science involved - but they say it.

Wouldn't it be a good joke on us, for example, if VLC or Irfanview turned
out to be run by a TLA who was harvesting all our media playing activity.
If that concerns you, the sooner you stop using a computer the better.

Every piece of software on it could be harvesting your activities
regardless of whether it was paid for or free.

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XPost: alt.comp.freeware

On Tue, 2 Sep 2025 18:23:28 -0400, knuttle wrote :

To me it would not be the worth the effort to harvest it.

I would guess the 'dangers' of free software could arise with the TrueCrypt/VeraCrypt style software many of us use for encryption.

For all we know, the "TLA's" could have a back door, and yet, we might be blissfully unaware that our OpenVPN freeware is secretly compromised.

However, most of us use VLC/Irfanview/MPC BE, where I doubt that any back
door would be of much interest to the TLA's (as I agree with you on that).

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XPost: alt.comp.freeware

On 09/02/2025 11:54 AM, Marion wrote:

Actually, there is good reason for privacy in terms of freeware because one of the most common, if not most common complaint about freeware is said as
"if you're not paying for the product, then you are the product".

Just to be clear, anyone who "says" that crap is always stupid, as they
think there is some kind of profound science involved - but they say it.

Wouldn't it be a good joke on us, for example, if VLC or Irfanview turned
out to be run by a TLA who was harvesting all our media playing activity.

If they do, there are going to be a lots of scenery picture I take for reference picture for my artist wife and our vacation. They are going
to get a lot of videos of the wild life in our yard, and not much more.

To me it would not be the worth the effort to harvest it.

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XPost: alt.comp.freeware

On 2025/9/2 9:33:2, wasbit wrote:

On 01/09/2025 16:04, Marion wrote:

While aphorisms have truth deeply embedded, more often than not they don't. >> "There¢s no such thing as a free lunch."
"You get what you pay for."
"Cheap is expensive."
"If you're not paying for the product, you are the product."
"When something is free, ask what it's costing you in privacy."
"Convenience of freeware is just surveillance in disguise."
"Privacy is dead, and free social media holds the smoking gun."

What examples of freeware do you feel meet or do not meet these aphorisms? >> I'll start.

Irfanview meet my freeware & privacy expectations.
Vpngate.net does not.

Why oh why is alt.privacy included ?????

(I see it isn't by the time the thread reached here; as it's not a
'group I take, I haven't put it back.)

Because a lot of - not all! - "freeware" collects data. That includes
some very good and useful software; some of those of us who use it
accept that as the price of using it (though obviously some don't
realise that), and may or may not moderate our usage accordingly.>

Windows System Control Centre (WSCC)
- http://www.kls-soft.com/wscc/

Contains the complete suites of tools from:
Nirsoft
Sysinternals
MiTec (Michael Mutl)
GRC (Gibson research)
Krzysztof Kowalczyk (Sumatra PDF)
Pete Batard (Rufus & more)
Simon Tatham (PuTTy & more)
Void Tools (David Carpenter - Everything)

I'll have to look into that, thanks!>

Sysinternals (Mark Russinovich/Bryce Cogswell, now Microsoft)
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/
Nir Sofer (http://www.nirsoft.net)
Gibson Research Corporation (http://www.grc.com)
Krzysztof Kowalczyk (https://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/index.html)
Simon Tatham (https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham)
David Carpenter (https://voidtools.com)
Pete Batard (https://pete.akeo.ie/)
Michal Mutl (http://mitec.cz)

And thanks for that list too.>

• portable
• user controlled update manager
• console.

One of my favourite free programmes despite the fact that it only gets
used sporadically.

Yes; I'd say that of the SysInternals and NirSoft suites: I don't often
use them, but enjoy doing so when I do - they're well-written and
presented. (Even if I haven't been able to make the universal launcher
one of them [I forget which] has created, that provides a wrapper for
both suites, work on this machine.)>

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

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