Zango Wins Lawsuit, Dismisses Users Who Can't Uninstall Its App As 'Background Noise'
from the such-concern-for-their-users dept
Adware firm Zango, which recently changed its name from 180solutions is doing a bit of gloating today after a court dismissed the class action lawsuit that was filed against the company a year ago. Note that this comes just days after security firm Sunbelt Software declared Zango's search assistant one of the most insidious spyware apps around for the month of August. Not to mention, of course, the recent revelations of how Zango was caught trying to trick people into putting videos on their MySpace pages that installed Zango. After denying that they did so, others revealed emails from the company telling others how to target MySpace users. Meanwhile, the sheer number of folks who constantly complain that their machines are infested with Zango software that they never agreed to install, combined with story after story that shows that the company has not stopped rogue distributors, would suggest that Zango may be a bit premature in brushing aside critics.It's not clear from Zango's announcement (yes, they announced it) why this case was thrown out -- but it's pretty clear that there's something in their software that pisses off an awful lot of people who have it and have no idea how they got it. It's hard to see how that's something to cheer about. In the press release, the CEO of the company calls such complaints "occasional distractions" and "background noise of a small group of fixated critics" while another company exec claims that this dismissal confirms "that our innovative business model is entirely legitimate." Both claims seem to be stretching the truth. The dismissal of a single lawsuit (and the details are missing as to why it was dismissed) doesn't necessarily justify the business model -- and the fact that the company views some pretty serious, and very detailed, complaints from an awful lot of people as "background noise" should hopefully alert advertisers that this is not a company to work with.
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burn em all
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Re: burn em all
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fine by me...
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Re: fine by me...
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Linux has it's downsides too
Granted anybody that NEEDS to use windows doesn't belong in front of a computer in the first place, and most of these people are just "users" it is possible to build a reletivly secure win box though through use of Spybot S&D's TeaTimer. Spybot is fully freeware, and teatimer is a built in program that monitors for changes in the system registry.
I've personally evaded the 180searchassistant through the use of Teatimer.
So, yeah, as the old adage goes, Don't blame the manufacturer, because chances are, it's USER error.
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Re: Linux has it's downsides too
Now, now, let's not get trolling. This is an uninformed comment - there are many applications/professions which require proprietary software solutions (for example, CADD?). At least, for now they do. Someone can go ahead and create a professional drafting suite if they'd like to get these people to switch...
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Re: Linux has it's downsides too
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Re: Linux has it's downsides too
WHAT?
Try looking around, Windows has a terrible installation process. I use only Linux now, I won't go back.
Please, try something like Ubuntu where you can install from a live cd and then tell me that line of BS.
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Re: Linux has it's downsides too
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User Error
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lawsuit my ass
if there's any left over we knee cap the 'not so broke student' who thinks it's fucking funny.. low life is the kindest thing i can think of to say about him.
i got the shit on mine and i fail to see how it was an error on my part other than using my computer as it was meant to be used.
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Happened to me
I hope these people burn in the firey depths of hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Re: Happened to me
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Re: lawsuit my ass
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Re: Re: lawsuit my ass
All the PC's I fix for slowness and internet probs with popups are Zango and every person who got it didnt download it and not one could uninstall it with out needing me to go through a process.
Interupting Games by popping them back to windows, interupting videos yet again with the lying popups that tell you to click them or you will be infected then in fact you are and will be more infected if you click them.
Processes that run 3 instances to prevent there closure.
So I conclude there software is nothing more than a flashy looking worm.
The CEO of Zango should be inprisioned for 8 years minimum, thats Time Served.
ZANGO = no more than a terrorist attack on people's pc's.
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Re: Re: Re: lawsuit my ass
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Re: Re: lawsuit my ass
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Windows
The firewall and spyware utilities Microsoft released recently aren't even really noteworthy. ZoneAlarm has been around how long? And SpyBot? Microsoft's programs are mainly just so they can look at least a little responsible. I mean, they created the problems in the first place.
What they're doing is tantamount to creating a ship with holes throughout the hull, then *offering* her captain a kit to fix them six years later.
As for Linux.
Saying Linux isn't user friendly is somewhat incorrect. Linux in its purest form is really just a kernel. I'm sure the NT kernel would be much more convoluted. The problem isn't with Linux, it's with the distributors. Up until recently, GUIs in Linux have been really, REALLY counter-intuitive and almost pointless to use, save for the applications requiring them.
What needs to happen for Linux is for a big company (like Novell) to take Linux and build a really great distribution around it. Though this may not really be the "Year of the Linux Desktop" as Novell was promising, change is still in the air. Look at Ubuntu. Now THERE's a step in the right direction.
All in all, Linux is really the answer, as DittoBox so eloquently said earlier. But the answer to what? A better operating system? Yes. Definitely.
But as for a better end user product... give it a little longer. It's behind the game, only because the focus never really was on being popular. That's not the point of Linux. That's all the endeavouring of the distributors like RedHat and all those folks who actually can make money off of this stuff.
All power to them, I say. But before Linux has a place on the desktop (and that will be a great day, indeed), it's going to need some way of making it known to the public, as well as acknowledgement from proprietary vendors like Adobe, and hardware manufacturers.
Open source is great, but no professional is going to use GIMP over Photoshop. The day a graphic designer can have an easy, free, stable system that can run Photoshop natively (not as in wine natively, I mean as in built-for-Linux natively) will be the day.
That's all we need. Linux just needs more widespread adoption by the software companies, and some good interface designers. Pre load PCs with it at a discounted price, and the gravy train gets rolling.
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Re: Windows
Don't get me wrong, I love Linux, and currently run Fedora, but that is no reason to deny the truth.
Also people seem to forget software like Microsoft Office, which has been a standard for years, do you expect companies to pay for their employees to learn some new software so they can save some money on the OS.
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Re: Re: lawsuit my ass
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and you did gloat. so kiss my ass, you arrogant underachieving son of bitch
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Re: Whoa
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Re: Windows
To the person who said real users don't NEED windows: not all, but if you enjoy video games you do. I would never play a graphics intensive game on an operating system it wasn't written for. considering i'm seeing more and more directx only games, i don't think this will change in a long time. also, it comes down to adobe software as well, as someone else mentioned. that's software that can be very resource intensive so i would go the same route as with video games. considering all i have to choose from there is a mac and a pc... well, there's another reason i won't be dropping windows for a while.
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Re:
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Penguins N' Porno
Microsoft Office dominates (sigh... once again) because Microsoft got there first, and gained trust through propaganda and other marketing strategy.
This means that the best way to get Linux out there is to create a psychological barrier between office computing and home computing in the mind of consumers. Then get vendors to pre-install Linux at the reduction of $price_of_windows from the system. Of course- it has to be an easy to use distro...
Good incentive, huh?
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perhaps there should be a few new forms of write protections in windows, and developers that use them. modifiyable only by so and so executeable, and this setting can't be changed except by that executeable. modifiable only with password thats given(ie it needs to be passed somehow before you can change it). also windows should already have some sort of registry permissions type of thing(UI similare to a firewall but with differnt programs)
the case got dismissed cause the judge was TOOOO annoyed. would be my guess.
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In Response to...
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html
#6 Again, I told you how to solve the problem, have you been watching your registry with teatimer? Have you taken Adequate steps to secure your machine? No computer is ever 100% safe except when Disconnected from the web. But we can practice safety.
#8 If your installing shit off the 'net then you deserve everything you got. I have no sympathy on you if you've not (As I've said before) Secured machine.
#15 Please note that I said I have windows box as well. I am a gamer.
#17 There is a wonderful Free-ware suite called OpenOffice.org. It's very similar to MS Office. (Not quite the same, Although don't take that as an expert opinion as I've only used it very briefly, I perfer the basic notepad programs)
Peace!
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And don't get me started on the USB drive letter assignment bug - y'know, the one that insists on automatically mapping external disks to specified locations, and forgetting to check if the drive letter for the location is already assigned. But I guess to WinDOS users, I shouldn't be assigning network drives any drive letters in the first place, eh.
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It is called DirectX
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OpenOffice
I prefer AbiWord for word processing, and if I ever wanted to do spreadsheets, I'd use Gnumeric Spreadsheet.
Anyway.
Maybe things should stay the way they are. The idiots who choose to use Windows can just stay in their mud hole. And the people who are forced to use it can just hang in there- I feel sorry for them.
And then there's us. I've been working on setting up my Linux system recently. I'm really kind of a n00b at it, but at least I know how to compile and install software, and I know my way around the command line, so I've got a pretty well-working setup here. The only -ONLY- thing I miss about Windows is the ability to run Photoshop.
I may get a Mac someday, after Photoshop CS3 comes out. If I have money. Oh, well...
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Re: OpenOffice
Mac... *shudders*
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Lookup Deep Freeze for anyone who is interested..
Got a problem? Reset computer and !hooray! everything's back exactly as you had it the last time you turned on your computer! Problem solved
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Linux - you're joking, right?
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Zango is not bad at all - COME ONE PEOPLE!
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RE: Linux - you're joking, right?
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Linux / Windows
Both are useful in their own way, both have their good points and bad points. Each approaches hardware and software in different ways.
I'm sick and tired of the Windows bashing. In fact, as crappy as Windows was/is they are making improvements. Linux too is crappy, for all you genius Linux users who think linux is the shit, I remember when you couldn't buy ANY hardware for Linux. Shit I had to write my own drivers! Talk about a pain in the ass.
I swear Linux users think it's all that but no it's not. Each OS changes, adds features, removes features. It's nothing more than growing pains.
Windows has its niche and Linux has theirs. Neither can fully replace the other hence I run both at home and at the network which I administer.
I swear some computer users are total retards!
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I love to see all the daiper wearing fucks cry how much better linux is. LMFAO!
How hard is it to put a winxp cd in a machine and let it install. My god people, are you all a bunch of retarted fucks or what. dumbass little trolls go back sucking yuor momma tits.
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Re:
Let's see, the machine next me requires me to download net drivers to get an XP install working. Debian, FC4, Ubuntu, and Slackware have all installed with no problems on the same machine.
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Give up Your Computers!
Besides what did my computer ever do for me besides suck my time, and money. I feel like playing counter-strike, guess I'll jump on my bike (get excercise) and head down to the internet cafe, they have a room full of Counterstrike computers.
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I've posted more on my blog on the matter.
Alex
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It's the same for the Debian Linux actually - insert CD, install. OR, run live CD, select Install To Hard Disk. In other words, exactly the same.
Only for WinDOS, you have to have your handy-dandy Microsoft Sticker with 25-digit product key avaliable. And that's just for pre-Activation versions - with the Activation versions, if you're REAL unlucky, you have to spend some pennies with your local Telco and wait till Microsoft gives you another 25 digit key.
Sure, there's the "unattended install" - but here's the catch. You need to remaster your own WinDOS install disc, or create a sysprep image, or disc image. That's one BIG extra step that isn't for non-newbs, mind you.
But I suppose this is worth it for simply having more usable apps, eh...
On hindsight tho, it isn't as bad as OSX... gad, that one needs proprietary/specific hardware to even get an install. AMD and VIA processors are UNSUPPORTED... and if there's anyone who successfully installed OSX on a custom-built PC, I would like to know.
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120 Win installs last quarter
As others have pointed out, Linux won't take hold until the 'flavors' become more interchangeable and the GUI gets dumbed-down slightly. Sure, power-users might love it, but the real estate agent down the street or the restaurant owner downtown each have about 100 other things to worry about and don't want to learn the ins-and-outs of a completely new OS. They know that when they click the big "e" that the internet opens, etc.
That's probably one of the biggest obstacles to open-source distribution. And it's apparent in this thread as well as most others on this site. Tech-savvy 'nerds' have tunnel-vision and don't understand that people don't care about how a computer or it's OS works...they just want it to do whatever it is they bought it for. There is such a huge anti-enduser mentality among techies, that good implementation will not occur, since they believe all end-users are idiots.
We are currently putting together an implementation plan for an upcoming customer who has agreed to put their business on a 'mostly' open-source software platform. If successful, and if we can get the users past the "this doesn't look like my computer at home" mentality, I think it could be the start. But it will take patience and a thoroughly planned-out training plan. Have any of you sat through a "How to use MS Word" class? Probably not...it's a little beneath most of the people on this site. But if you do, you will see how easy Joe Sixpack finds it. Alternate OSs might be that easy, but the training for implementation needs to be that easy as well. The local library runs 5 classes each week for people to learn to use various SW packages. How many classes are there for learning Linux? 0.
I think it's just about maturity. The Windows OS has enjoyed a couple of decades of dominance to work out the GUI issues. If Linux can settle on a specific flavor, to which developers can see some fiscally sensible development returns, then things will change, and then stick with that for 5-10 years, it will start to see the expansion it deserves.
back to work
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ruined msn
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MAcS are better
maybe you guys should get a mac it protects itself from like every kind of virus cuz of its system and stuff
macs are cool ;)
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Re: MAcS are better
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????
Next time what I think I'll do is install the program just to shut them up - get my file, then uninstall it.
And to think, all I'm downloading is a Misfits album.
@____@;;;
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Re: ????
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Re: Re: ????
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EASILY UNINSTALL ZANGO
THIS LINK DOESN'T BRING UP THAT STUPID POP-UP THAT DOESN'T ALLOW YOU TO INSTALL ZANGO (LIKE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU GO THROUGH "MY COMPUTER")
JUST FIGURED THIS OUT...I DON'T KNOW IF YOU GUYS ALL KNOW THIS ALREADY, JUST THOUGHT I'D SHARE :) LOL
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