Motivation
I needed a good FTP client and somebody told me the Open Source FileZilla which could be used for free was a perfect fit for my needs.
Experience of Installation Process
The first step of installing FileZilla is finding it. Since all major search engines has the main project page at top listing, this part is covered.
Next finding the download option. This is a bit more challenging; first you click on the big grey button and next the big green button. For a Windows install this gives a selection box between two versions:
- Screenshot from 2018-06-19 20-37-23.png (27.71 KiB) Viewed 2895 times
After installation the computer has to be rebooted and all went downhill. Apparently those advertisements contained small print agreeing to install Avast Anti-virus, as learned after investigation this was a bundled offer, this caused conflicts with existing software (virus scanners) and company enforced software policies, ending up in a re-install of the software.
Evaluation of Installation Process
I understand I consented to agree to install the software ,by leaving the tickmark selected and pressing Next, how-ever this seems against common practice and EU regulation with regards to consent and pre-ticked checkboxes:
Generating income using the bundle supported software just feels wrong to me and I am hoping my user experience and expectation would help for futher installs. Installing software should be a friendly and welcome approach, after all it's the first time you get in contact with your potential new user, after he/she managed to get around the burden of finding you, downloading you, starting the installer, etc. The installer should have a warm and fuzzy feeling of happiness of using a new product for the first time. I would not mind if the last page of the installer gives me a remainder on how-to express 'thank you' to the amazing people who made the software. Pre-checked bundled software installs does not fall in any of those categories imho.3) Banning pre-ticked boxes on websites
When shopping online – for instance buying a plane ticket – you may be offered additional options during the purchase process, such as travel insurance or car rental. These additional services may be offered through so-called ‘pre-ticked’ boxes. Consumers are currently often forced to untick those boxes if they do not want these extra services. With the new Directive, pre-ticked boxes will be banned across the European Union.
I do believe FileZilla is a user-space application, installation by any user should made trivial, it should not require an experienced software administrator to install the package. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Suggestion
I understand the fact income has to been generated to keep the lights of the amazing FileZilla project running, not sure how much you folks need on a yearly basis since it is not (transparently) listed, how-ever it still leaves me wondering if this kind bundled software income is a sustainable model which follows a friendly user approach.
I would not mind donation a few EUR after using the program for a while, just because good projects needs to be supported. Or buying the Pro (or Supporter) version if explained why and how many income is required to keeps the lights running.
