My Open Source Woes...

Not so long ago, I used to depend on "OPEN SOURCE" software in all aspects of my "PROFESSIONAL" and working life - If I needed to type a letter, then I would use "Open Office", to make an exact HD image, I would use "Clonezilla", to do some fast data recovery or a "Low Level" work on an HD, I would use "Parted Magic", to do a quick edit or source code, then "Notepad++" was always there, and to create a new PDF document, then I usually send that to my "PDF Creator" printer. I really had an extensive collection, something to be proud of, with www.SourceForge.net, being my first port of call when looking for a solution.

Lately, I noticed a change when I was installing an update to one of the many utilities, I clicked on next, next, next, finish, and without given the updater a second look, I noticed that I had, inadvertently, installed "Babylon Search Bar", which, "in my opinion", is more damaging than a Virus. This, toolbar, opens the back-door for all kind of advertising, hijackers and nasties to be installed on your hard disk, and without your permission. At first, I thought this was an isolated incident, but then when I tried to install other pieces of software, I noticed that almost everything is coming with its own "Advertising" wrapper, something like the "ASK" toolbar, or the "Babylon Search Toolbar"..

I have nothing against "Babylon", but somehow I feel that they are a company without any scruples. And that they would sell their toolbar space (injector code) to anybody, regardless of motives, as well as the fact that they managed to change my browser settings, with no option to change those back to their original state. Regardless, please read this snippet from "Wikipedia" regarding the Babylon Toolbar.

On 7 August 2010, Microsoft antivirus products identified the software application as malware (identified as "Adware: Win32/Babylon") due to potentially intrusive behavior. Sixteen days later, on 23 August 2010, Microsoft announced that Babylon Ltd. had modified the program and that it was no longer categorized as malware. 

Babylon toolbar, a browser plugin for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome, is installed with various ad-supported software packages on an opt-out basis. This toolbar overrides default browser settings, does not provide an option to automatically revert to previous settings and is infamous for the complicated uninstallation process. This behaviour qualifies the software as malware in many users opinions.

Which brings us to today, and I'm trying to reinstall the "PDF Creator" PDF printer, and the installer that insists on adding the "Babylon Toolbar" to the express install.. I think I have to start a list to tell people about alternatives to "Open Source" files.