Don't download GIMP from SourceForge

[Skorpio]

https://plus.google.com/+gimp/posts/cxhB1PScFpe

Here's the text if you don't want to click:
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 locked out original owner of the account, Jernej Simončič, who has been building the Windows versions of GIMP for our project for years.

So far they haven't replied to provide explanations. Therefore, we remind you again that GIMP only provides builds for WIndows via its official Downloads page.

[Arthur]

For what's it worth, SF responded with a blog post: http://t.co/1wsU4AxSuN

[Akien]

For what's it worth, SF responded with a blog post: http://t.co/1wsU4AxSuN

Sounds like a good deal of BS to me. "We doing this for your sake, and we're also concerned about this ads." Who put the bloatware in place in the first time?

I've downloaded the latest executable yesterday: gimp-2.8.14-setup-1.exe, 700+ kB... Couldn't start it with wine, but I do believe that it's a bloated installer as the GIMP for Windows maintainer claimed that they replaced the binary with a 700 kB piece of junk.
Today, another attempt: tadaa, the same binary is 87.7 MB (as shown on the download page, and as was already shown yesterday, though the actual download was not what it claimed to be), and SourceForge posts a reply. How convenient.

[charlie]

"In cases where a project is no longer actively being maintained, SourceForge has in some cases established a mirror of releases that are hosted elsewhere. This was done for GIMP-Win...

"...Mirrored projects are sometimes used to deliver easy-to-decline third-party offers, and the original downloads are always available."

Or, in other words, "Yeah, it was us. You can always say no."

[c_xong]

On that note, what are some good alternatives to sf, for hosting binary releases for open source software? Github releases is an option but it doesn't have nice download stats tracking.

[Akien]

On that note, what are some good alternatives to sf, for hosting binary releases for open source software? Github releases is an option but it doesn't have nice download stats tracking.

That's something I want to look into. I know that TuxFamily provides free hosting for free software projects (and _only_ free software projects, they're nonprofit). According to their "About/Services" page, they provide 1 GB server space, but it can be increased if needed.

[Arthur]

More relevant info: http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entr ... ontroversy

[Roots]

On that note, what are some good alternatives to sf, for hosting binary releases for open source software? Github releases is an option but it doesn't have nice download stats tracking.

This page lists some sourceforge alternatives.
http://helb.github.io/goodbye-sourceforge/


I'm planning to move Hero of Allacrost off of sourceforge sometime soon. It's been something we've considered for a while, and I just kept putting it off because frankly, I'd rather be spending my time doing development than migrating to a new hosting solution. But they've really gone too far now, and I don't want to associate with them any longer. We're also still using SVN for our code repository (yeah, I know we're behind the times) so I'm planning to move us to either Mercurial or git with this migration as well. For the time being, I've been experimenting with BitBucket as our new home and Mercurial as our new source repository. I hope to migrate us sometime next month shortly after our next release gets published.

[mdwh]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison ... facilities

I use launchpad for hosting binaries/releases for most my projects (it gives a download count for each file). I still have projects on sourceforge though, for extra visibility, and features like forums (which I don't think github has either).

More generally, softpedia seems to be one of the few places not sticking crapware installers on everything. Don't forget to check places like download and Tucows in case they've done this to your projects. Hit them with takedowns if they're not following the licences; report them to the Google link given in the github link above.

(I was shocked by something off of Tucows recently that not only had no option to not install the toolbar, but went ahead and did so even though I aborted.)