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None of these you have listed are in any way competition for PortableApps.com.
All those sites do is redistribute desktop apps. Unless the base app is portable, those listed on those sites will not be portable.
The only thing that comes close to competition is that they feature updaters like PortableApps has.
Those are not portable.
These are:
http://www.pendriveapps.com/
http://www.portablefreeware.com/
They are rivals, but not even close.
This site is better maintained, better organized, and has its own platform.
[Three links removed from this point - all distribute illegal software - mod Chris]
1. Not Portable.
2. All the apps are for desktop.
3. Last time I checked, Virtual DJ was 29.99, NOT FREE.
You know what, I've been thinking. When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life TAKE THE LEMONS BACK! Get mad!! I don't want your lemons; what am I supposed to do with THESE!?
There's also [illegal suite] They also package portable apps and seems to have a number in common with PortableApps.com. Thier launcher even has an updater and they have several suites available.
When I tried them out a few months ago I saw the big difference:
Their portable apps must be launched from within their launcher. In PortableApps.com parlance, you would need to run all your portable apps from within the PortableApps.com menu.
This is why I prefer PortableApps.com I don't use the launcher (but most likely will when 2.0 comes out). I use another menu (at least for now) and frequently run portable apps completely on thier own.
The PortableApps.com menu will show portable apps you get from elsewhere; I have not tested this on [link to illegal suite that has stolen our work and violated the GPL removed by mod JTH].
You probably weren't aware, but the site you linked to has stolen our work previously over a period of years (stripping off our name/splash/bookmarks, removing our readme and the GPL license and passing the work off as his own) in addition to bundling many freeware apps without permission and trademarked open source apps in violation of the trademark guidelines. We don't permit linking to it or discussion of it and will most likely take action when necessary.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
That's all very well John and I support removing any software that is illegal, but how do we know which ones to avoid that you are referring to if you remove them! I myself use more than one suite including yours and would like to know if any I am using is illegal as I would certainly stop using it!
There are some people who should know what sites are bad, because it will make them shun those sites and further warn others, just as there are some people who should not know what those sites are because they will just go use apps from there regardless of the potential consequences, purely because they have a portable version of Photoshop or MS Office or whatever illegally and/or not-so-portably made app they are looking for, and will further spread the support-base of the illegal sites.
Unfortunately, PortableApps.com has a publicly viewable forum, and as such people from both camps can freely view the forums, and thus the links presented here as well, so while censorship is one of the last things most people here want, spreading the word on the illegal sites is somewhat worse.
Generally, if you see a link posted on this site that isn't censored within a few hours, it is more than likely safe.
And not that I condone creating work and annoyance for the moderators, but if you really aren't sure, post a link and ask. You'll soon find out which links get censored.
Ok fair enough, what about this suite then:- [illegal suite]. I use this suite a reasonable amount and it seems like a legit site and software, anyone know any different? I am quite willing to stop using it if it is illegal or is infringing on anyone else's work. Thanks.
Looks legit to me, and it's got categories ( whoopee )
This is the exact site I was referring to in this comment. They are a well-known GPL, trademark and copyright infringer.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Well, "rivals" is not equal "enemies" when they are just free customer options, I think.
I know, use and recommend [link to illegal site]. It has a portable apps manager that monitors apps update, file associations and more.
But there are a lot of PortableApps apps that are not implemented in [link to illegal site], so you can use them together.
This is the site I was referring to in this comment. While you are free to use it, you can not recommend it to others via this forum. Unlike that site you mention, we only do legal apps here, we don't violate the GPL, we don't repackage freeware without permission, we don't take others' work and pass it off as our own, etc.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Sorry, I did not know "they are a well-known GPL, trademark and copyright infringer". I'll search more about it. Thanks
One of the things I like best about the open source community is the general spirit of cooperation that exists. We can have multiple apps that do similar things without them being rivals - they offer different approaches, but are not necessarily in competition.
IMHO, the best Open Source apps conform to global standards, and try to have a big tent by maximizing compatibility with as many other similar apps and file types as possible. Prime examples are GIMP, LibreOffice, VLC.
The best developers also respect the rules of Open Source licensing, and they avoid working with developers that routinely break the rules.
On the first point, there currently is no real global standard for portable applications, although there is somewhat of a consensus on what makes an app portable. I would say that the individual apps here on PA.c conform excellently to the generally accepted definitions of portable. The platform/menu does tolerate many other legitimately portable applications, but it is specifically tuned to Official PortableApps(TM); some of the more interesting functions only work with the official ones.
As to the second point, PA.c is extremely diligent about following the rules, and extremely INtolerant of those that break them.
EDIT: P.S. while I understand that references to illegal sites are discouraged, the problem with complete redaction is that it becomes impossible to know which sites to avoid if the list is:
1.[illegal suite]
2.[illegal link]
3.[really bad site that breaks the rules]
4.[don't even look]
EDIT again:
If Harry Potter has taught us anything, it is that avoiding mention of a bad thing does not make it go away.
VOLDEMORT! There, I said it!
If there are sites that you want people to avoid, or at least avoid referencing, there should be a way that people know which ones they are! Perhaps you can CENSOR they way they do with bad words: L******y, for example. Or, you can set a sticky with the blacklist, and then your censorship can point to that link.
Otherwise, people are going to keep bringing these sites up without knowing that they have been given the scarlet A.
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
I agree with you Solanus, otherwise how do we know which ones we can use?
But now that I know, I will be ceasing using the aforementioned (removed) suite! Thanks PortableApps team and keep up the excellent work!
There is. It's called the post parser. It turns your STRONG links to bold and EM links to italics, etc. It can be tweaked to change anything into anything else as that is its primary purpose. It should be trivial to make links to, say, www.microsoft.com show up as [illegal site]. People can cheat it, but then it's obvious they're intending to do so. Or they'll ask "Why can we not link to M I C R O S O F T ?" and we'd tell 'em.
I am arguing AGAINST changing references to [illegal site] or anything else that is completely unrecognizable.
I believe that we cannot know which sites are bad if we keep removing references to them!
However, if we have a sticky that lists the bad sites, and use the post parser to replace their references with a link back to that sticky, that would work.
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
People don't read stickies. And besides, linking to them just makes people curious and gives those other, illegal, less popular sites more pageviews.
More often than not, telling someone that something is bad just piques their curiosity. For someone to go to their site and try their apps, they might not see/understand/care what makes the illegal apps so bad.
If we continue to completely redact any undesirable sites, they'll just keep cropping up in posts from newbies or forgetful veterans.
I had an idea that could help automate the censorship and prevent posts with references to illegal sites; but after I thought about it, I decided that it was way too Big Brother, so I've taken it down.
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
First of all, the sites aren't bad. Okay, that one that JTH really doesn't like because they stole PA.c's work and claimed it as their own? Nobody cares except JTH, a couple devs, and some PA.c fans. Me? I don't harbor them any ill will. Use their apps? Never. I care that much. Censor their URL? That's up to JTH. He runs this place. His goal is to remove links to software sites that don't play by his rules.
Somebody who's never used either their software or PA.c's? They don't care. And largely That Other Site's apps won't hurt anybody. Neither will the one with the bronze PA.c icon, though some of his are warez as well (but probably harmless to the end user).
The point? Your ideas are good, but not in line with the priorities of the guy running this board. He wants to send them absolutely no business. You can always google "portable software" and come to these pages, but he can't stop anybody from doing that. Meanwhile, my suggestion works. How do newbies know the site is bad? For the bronze logo, you know. Portable Photoshop? Yeah, that's probably illegal. But the guy offering, what was it, the portable Cafe or Expresso app, without the proper credit given? Not so obvious. But, drop the link and get it redacted, it sends the appropriate message. Now, maybe if the post parser changed it to [link removed*] and the asterisk linked to a list of errors, which basically said "the site you tried to link to did this, this, and this" that would give them all the additional information they need.
I don't really agree with the censorship either. I don't care about either of the other sites. I may or may not be running apps I've gotten from those sites, but that's my business. But, here, I respect the wishes of the site owner. On a forum you have to treat the forum like a house and the admin/founder like the owner. If you are in another's house, you follow their rules; if they say they do not want you to discuss a friend or acquaintance of yours, you do not do so. Same for forums. The alternative is to politely excuse yourself and not return.
But as a strategy, it only informs the one poster that they posted a blacklisted link. For all the others who comment on the thread, it doesn't provide them with any actionable information. In fact, on this very thread, the same site was mentioned several times, because people who came later to the discussion had no idea to what [illegal site] was referring.
I would also say that the forums on this site is more like a house party. The door is open, there are lots of people that you know, some you've just met, some you don't know. Each room has a big sign that tells you the topic of conversation (the forum name) and some smaller signs that tell you specific rules of conversation (the forum stickies). If someone starts a conversation that belongs in another room, they are politely asked to move to that room. If someone breaks the rules, they are shown the sticky to remind them. If they become abusive and obnoxious, they are tossed out of the party. All well and good. The problem comes when one of those rules includes a secret list of unmentionables.
So, I walk into that party, and a Dude says to me, "Don't mention you-know-who, he stole from the host".
My natural question is, "Who is it?" so that I can avoid offending the host.
Dude: "I can't tell you, I'm not allowed to mention him."
Me: "Is it Frank?"
Dude: "No, he's OK, talk about him all you want"
Me: "How about Jill?"
Dude: "She's OK too."
Me: "Can I talk about Mike?"
Dude: "SHH! NO! He's not the guy I was talking about, but he's off-limits, too!"
Me: "Can't I just have a list of who I'm not supposed to talk about?"
Dude: "The host won't even allow us to write them down. If you know their names, you might become friends with them. You really should stop asking me."
Me: "So I shouldn't talk about anyone at all, that's safer."
Dude: "Of course not! You can talk about anyone that hasn't stolen from the host. Just don't ask which one's which."
Me: *sigh*
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
Aww common, just when the story was getting good you cut it short!
It amazes me that on the internet you can be anything you want, and yet so many people still choose to be idiots.
It will run any program you want it to with out hneeding it put into the Portable apps format. but theres a problem, the program is considered maleware by AVG so it is removed as soon as it decets the program...
Its called Cody Safe.
Who do I kill again? Oh wait why does it matter? OI'll kill them all!
If you use our search function, you will see a whole lotta posts that discuss it.
So far, I think this one hasn't made the blacklist.
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
The PA.c Platform will let you run apps not in PA.c Format as well:
https://portableapps.com/support/portable_apps_suite#addingotherapps
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
CodySafe, from what I can tell after looking at it, is based off of the PortableApps.com Platform, and in fact, many of the applications in CodySafe's "Apps Depot", come from here, not from CodySafe, and are properly credited as such.
similar to those of FFMPEG and VLC and other GPL places. that way we know who is bad. we can even have a vote on who should be where on the list
I agree, expect for the inherent desire to visit site featured on wall(s) of shame...
I like this idea as well, but it's really up to Mr. Haller.
And great story, Solanus, only nobody tells newbies when they join up that they can't talk about some sites. And, the host doesn't get offended, he (or someone else) just edits the posts. It's more like, as opposed to your story, having a friend who doesn't like talking about certain subjects (e.g. religion and politics, but maybe less-obvious ones like horror movies or something).
There is a very specific reason why the sites are not allowed, and it has everything to do with their behavior - that is, they break the rules, and they take others' work and pass it off as their own, including some that are redistributing PortableApps illegally. They are, by definition, bad actors.
And you are right, there isn't any warning for newbies that there is a secret blacklist of sites - that's part of the problem.
I think a big part of my issue with this practice is that it assumes that, given the knowledge that these other sites exist, PortableApps adherents will somehow flock to them and support them. I'd give our people a lot more trust and credit.
With the huge number of apps available here, there's only one real reason that people would patronize any of these sites. They see a menu that has features that do not yet exist in the current PortableApps Platform, such as categories, and don't feel like waiting any more. The answer to that is to release the next rev of the Platform of course, with all the promised features. Do that, and these illegal sites will die on the vine, whether we mention them or not.
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
Remember that there are several thousand people who view the site in any given week. You can't say that every one of them is going to read a blacklist and say "hey, I'm not going to visit them, they do bad stuff".
Look at how often things like portable versions of Photoshop or Office or IE or any other big, commercial or otherwise illegal app is requested here. If even 5% of the user-base here saw a link to a blacklisted site and visited it, it would possibly double the user-base of some of those sites.
Also, most wouldn't try them out for a feature in the menu that we don't (yet) have. They would jump ship for faster release times (because their apps are not portabilized or tested properly and thus are thrown together haphazardly and thus quicker) and/or for apps that will never be added to the list here due to legal reasons, that the other sites couldn't care less about.
One. The PortableApps platform is the only app launcher that enforces such archaic restrictions on the user. The big deal that JTH makes about categories? Mostly bull. I mean, we've all seen it work in the R34 mod. The feature exists and has for 2-3 years. Yet, after so many things we never thought we'd live to see -- Chinese Democracy, Duke Nukem Forever, A Dance With Dragons -- have all been released, categories "escape" the PortableApps menu. Not because they can't be done (it's been done) but for some reason that we are not permitted to know. And that's just the PortableApps menu. The site with the bronze PA logo uses the PortableApps menu, he just changes some of the graphics. Other sites use Pstart or other launchers.
Two. Those sites won't go away just because the official PA menu gets categories. Anybody who really cares about categories is already using Pstart or some other menu that has the feature.
Three. I don't think anybody is really "supporting" those other sites. By just downloading their Mediafire (and lesser file drop sites') links? That's not support. Page views? Maybe. I'm not gonna whitelist 'em on my ad blocker, so it doesn't matter if I visit them. I'm sure as hell not gonna donate.
You know, it's all so silly. The lack of a highly requested feature, on a site that is all about open source? Or how about the fact that you need an app that costs about $1000 to compile the code of that app, yet the developer is always looking for donations? I mean, why not take the $1000 from the app (unless he pirated it, which I highly doubt) and put it in the donation box, and use a free IDE like C++ or something? And then, the "thousands" of people who always seem to be browsing the forums (according to the stats). And the main app doesn't seem to be in active development. Oh, you hear things, and there have been screenshots, and there's an announcement coming Tuesday, no Wednesday, no Friday, no the weekend, now it's Tuesday... and it's this way that it's been over a year since the latest version of the app, the page for which still promises the next version "next week". These things just don't add up. It's like a bad episode of the X-Files. On the Internet. Yet somehow I feel a little batty asking about them... and wonder why nobody else has.
1) There are many "competing" sites that distribute software made portable through special modifications, you are not the only ones.
2) Your software is GPL / Open Source, so anyone (in theory) is free to view the code and reuse it if he wants.
3) Your Launchers are based on NSIS, which means that anyone who knows such software can recreate similar stuff without using your code.
6) There is a difference between being inspired and copying
[Comment edited by poster]
As you're posting this semi-rant with some references to very old work and some stuff from outside the scope of this above thread... I'll attempt to respond and include relevant context.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
[Comment removed by poster]
It's all good. I hadn't fully read through this very old thread and didn't realize what the tone was, hence the semi-rant mention. Sorry about that. More of the illegal usage was occurring around this time, so there was more animosity. You're welcome to use the launcher code or anything else under the appropriate license. I did LibreWolf as a few folks had asked for it and figured (correctly it turns out) it would take a little trial and error to fully get it working with taskbar pinning and profile portablization.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!