We should play this up more on our site, but Ninite (I'm a co-founder and we're YC W08) does this stuff right.
All our .exes are signed, app config information comes over https, and downloads are all checked for hashes that match our testing before being automated. We're not just naively adding silent switches either, we'll automate clicks to get through less well-behaved installers when needed.
Why can you trust Ninite? Money. Thousands of businesses pay us for Ninite Pro and the free version is our marketing department. We're extremely careful to make sure our updates come out on time and junk free.
I can't thank you enough! That program is _always_ the absolute first i download on every windows machine, period.
I think i've told all my friend about ninite by now, and everyone is super impressed.
Would you care to elaborate on how it works? do you download from each software homepage, or do you constantly have to download latests versions and then serve from your own server?
Any way you could make a free or cheap one-time pay, for a version that can use a private server to host, and then deliver programs to it this way.
That's right, we did no redistribution or modification of their software. Ninite just automates things you would do.
But, publishers can license their software under whatever terms they want. They could forbid this sort of automation in the license, or even forbid Ninite specifically by name. As far as we can tell there's no right to automate your own machine that prohibitions like that would be violating.
I think the only defense here is public backlash (thanks everyone!) and/or boycott.
> publishers can license their software under whatever terms they want. They could forbid this sort of automation in the license, or even forbid Ninite specifically by name. As far as we can tell there's no right to automate your own machine that prohibitions like that would be violating.
You're referring to the EULA, right? Is that enforceable in court? I've heard mixed opinions in the past on this topic from legal experts.
Sorry for the confusion. That copy is about things like Filehippo Updater, not built-in updaters. The aggregation and automation arguments still apply, but it's not intended as a jab at them.
I'm still confused at how making money destroys our credibility. It's a good thing for the people you trust with software updates to be profitable. Pro users paying us for extra features like remote mode lets us offer Ninite free for everyone else.
We don't even run ads on the free site because Pro users pay the bills and we love that we can save people from wasting time clicking Next Next Next.
because looking at the website, you sure look like a bog standard marketing pitch to the average consumer selling fundamental computer operations for a price.
At least Adobe isn't selling me the copy function at $3.99.
If you were coming from selling a service, that would be different (we aggregate a working ecosystem of programs ready for your selection, subscribe to our repository!), but you're not. You're selling a program more than a service.
I just find it incredulous to see the phrase "We deserve better than this" where "better" is having basic functionality sold to you.
First I want to say thanks! We love your work at PortableApps.com and send people there whenever they ask us to add portable software.
Our value is keeping the catalog up-to-date and putting a nice interface around the updating process. Not ad-blocking.
We actively uncheck toolbars for maybe 5 apps. If those apps removed their toolbar offers people would still use Ninite to track updates and automate work.
If publishers want to make updating their software artificially hard there's not a lot we can do except trust that people will see what's going on and move to other products.
Not being able to choose where things get installed killed Ninite for me. Their reasoning is "where an app is installed is an implementation detail that users shouldn't worry about."
My SSD can only hold so much, and I don't see the benefit of having a browser or file sharing app on an SSD. That seems like a detail I should care about.
I usually install to the default location.. shutdown the app if running, move the directory, and symlink/mklink the default location to the new location.
This is especially helpful for games/apps you are actively using (on the SSD) but when you're done, or not playing as much, it's still available, just not as fast.
I believe it uses the default Program Files and (x86) directory. Have you tried setting that to your other drive so your Ninite-installed apps default to their, but you can still manually select your SSD for the apps you wish to run more quickly (PhotoShop, etc).
Howdy Patrick. First, let me say thanks as well, as I like your product and have sent people your way when they ask about something like PortableApps.com for local software. I'd also like to make clear that I in no way have a problem with the way Ninite works. I just had a problem with the way this article was written. Looking back at my original post, I definitely wrote a few things incorrectly and I apologize for that.
Regarding profits XOR good, I agree that you can do both and hope it didn't seem like I was implying otherwise. PortableApps.com, though fully open source, is also a for-profit venture that also intends to do good. It just happens to not be turning a profit yet. We're working on a freemium model as well, but we decided against making our updater and app store a paid feature and against bundling in ads as it would negatively impact some of our users.
I was unaware that Adobe had accessibility issues but, considering the interface, it makes sense. So, let me commend you on assisting with that. We did some custom work to ensure accessibility in our products as we have a large contingent of folks it helps as well.
Regarding publishers making updating their software artificially hard, I'm with you on that. We've had more than one publisher refuse to appear in the PortableApps.com App Store and Updater for that very reason: they want to have users to visit their website on each new version to see offers. That's why the portable version of the app that's not on Ninite isn't available on PortableApps.com either, despite offering up possible alternative revenue streams and offering capabilities. So, we're in the same boat there.
We should have a chat sometime and see if there are any ways we could work together.
Seriously though, we'd lose all our Ninite Pro customers if we pulled any crap with our installations. Since the free version is our marketing department we'd be idiots to mess that up too.
That rings kind of hollow after Blecharczyk ("among the nicest of all the people we've funded") was outed as an unrepentant habitual spammer. YC is demonstrably not immune to scumbags, which is not to say that other angels and VCs do better.
All our .exes are signed, app config information comes over https, and downloads are all checked for hashes that match our testing before being automated. We're not just naively adding silent switches either, we'll automate clicks to get through less well-behaved installers when needed.
Why can you trust Ninite? Money. Thousands of businesses pay us for Ninite Pro and the free version is our marketing department. We're extremely careful to make sure our updates come out on time and junk free.