Seriously, why do all of you people get so bent out of shape? I'm honestly asking here.
If you don't like a type of food, do you go on a personal crusade to ensure no one ever eats it ever again? Probably not.
If you don't like Real's business strategy, DON'T USE IT. I personally don't like the real player, never have, probably never will. I do, however, use Rhapsody and I think it's a fantastic service for the price. But that's off topic.
The real question is why Real (or any other company for that
The real question is why Real... perceived as a malicious company?
It wasn't long ago that you were promised a "free real player"... but to get it, you had to search out the tiny, virtually hidden little link on not one but several pages in a sequence to finally get to the "free" version that would not expire in several days and demand you pay.
Of course, the non-free (as in beer) version that expired quickly wasn't conspiciously labeled as such in the several places it was displayed... so most people, even knowledgable technical people, were usually tricked into downloading the trial version of the expensive player, having a reasonable believe that they were in fact installing the free one they had been promised.
Many sites that offered videos in Real's format resorted to giving detailed explaination of exactly where to find the free one and how to get past all the attempts to trick you into downloading the expiring trial. What did Real Networks do? They regularly changed the pages, in what appears to any rational observer a deliberate attempt to intentionally hide the truely free version and dupe anyone looking for it into downloading the one that isn't free.
Upon installing either the free or trial versions of Real's player, it wasn't long ago that they would randomly throw popup advertising on the screen. Perhaps there was a way to disable this, but it wasn't obvious.
During the installation process, Real would demand the user to give their email address. The purpose was only to sell these addresses to marketers. The typical install, which is what most users select, would subscribe you to lots of junk. The custom/expert/advanced install would have a list of marketing partners.
Slashdot even had coverage of Real's highly deceptive tactic of using a very long list of opt-in marketing, where the ones that initially appeared in the list were all unselected.... giving the user an appearance that the default was to opt-out. But MANY more appeared below the visible portion and were only seen if the user scrolled down. All those others, not shown without scrolling, where checked by default. That's a pretty sneaky trick.
But it doesn't stop there. It's keep running in the background, even if asked not to. They had a history of sending private info back to their server, even if told not to. They have a history of grabbing file associations when they reasonably shouldn't. The list goes on and on. If there's a sneaky, deceptive tactic to be used in free downloads, Real has done it.
Maybe that's changed now. But they have left a legacy of mistrust that is very well deserved.
Of course, the non-free (as in beer) version that expired quickly wasn't conspiciously labeled as such in the several places it was displayed... so most people, even knowledgable technical people, were usually tricked into downloading the trial version of the expensive player, having a reasonable believe that they were in fact installing the free one they had been promised.
Ok, fair enough. I don't quite remember if it was labeled as a trial or a free product or what. But can you really fault Real for t
"By the time they had diminished from 50 to 8, the other dwarves began
to suspect "Hungry."
-- a Larson cartoon
Whats with all the personal angst? (Score:4, Insightful)
If you don't like a type of food, do you go on a personal crusade to ensure no one ever eats it ever again? Probably not.
If you don't like Real's business strategy, DON'T USE IT. I personally don't like the real player, never have, probably never will. I do, however, use Rhapsody and I think it's a fantastic service for the price. But that's off topic.
The real question is why Real (or any other company for that
Re:Whats with all the personal angst? (Score:4, Insightful)
It wasn't long ago that you were promised a "free real player"... but to get it, you had to search out the tiny, virtually hidden little link on not one but several pages in a sequence to finally get to the "free" version that would not expire in several days and demand you pay.
Of course, the non-free (as in beer) version that expired quickly wasn't conspiciously labeled as such in the several places it was displayed... so most people, even knowledgable technical people, were usually tricked into downloading the trial version of the expensive player, having a reasonable believe that they were in fact installing the free one they had been promised.
Many sites that offered videos in Real's format resorted to giving detailed explaination of exactly where to find the free one and how to get past all the attempts to trick you into downloading the expiring trial. What did Real Networks do? They regularly changed the pages, in what appears to any rational observer a deliberate attempt to intentionally hide the truely free version and dupe anyone looking for it into downloading the one that isn't free.
Upon installing either the free or trial versions of Real's player, it wasn't long ago that they would randomly throw popup advertising on the screen. Perhaps there was a way to disable this, but it wasn't obvious.
During the installation process, Real would demand the user to give their email address. The purpose was only to sell these addresses to marketers. The typical install, which is what most users select, would subscribe you to lots of junk. The custom/expert/advanced install would have a list of marketing partners.
Slashdot even had coverage of Real's highly deceptive tactic of using a very long list of opt-in marketing, where the ones that initially appeared in the list were all unselected.... giving the user an appearance that the default was to opt-out. But MANY more appeared below the visible portion and were only seen if the user scrolled down. All those others, not shown without scrolling, where checked by default. That's a pretty sneaky trick.
But it doesn't stop there. It's keep running in the background, even if asked not to. They had a history of sending private info back to their server, even if told not to. They have a history of grabbing file associations when they reasonably shouldn't. The list goes on and on. If there's a sneaky, deceptive tactic to be used in free downloads, Real has done it.
Maybe that's changed now. But they have left a legacy of mistrust that is very well deserved.
Re:Whats with all the personal angst? (Score:2, Insightful)