This site gives away a free commercial program everyday. So far, I've found not catches.

[episodic]

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/magic-ball-2/

Sometimes the programs are not what you want - but they have a new free one everyday.

Something to check out.

 

[Zim]

Thanks. Will give it a look.

 

[l0cke]

thanks op

 

[Devistater]

Looks interesting

 

[lykaon78]

Got total image converter... not sure if this site passes the sniff test or not.

 

[doan]

The downside to this site is you only get to install the program once, so yes you get it free, but if you want to put it on another system tomorrow or if you reload your system, you're screwed

 

[Kreggo]

From their website:

We will pay the software publisher for the Giveaway license, and our visitors will only receive those after downloading a special verification program and agreeing to the Terms and Conditions

So you have to install their "special verification program" on your PC and you agree to the "Terms and Conditions" which don't seem to be published on their site. I can't even find a privacy policy on their site.

Too risky for me.

 

[aceO07]

I wonder what their special verification program does. Monitor your web browsing? Use your bandwidth? Use your cpu? Pop up ads?

 

[Devistater]

I dont know if the activate thing installs anything at all. I think it just sets the program to registered status instead of trial, after checking that you are installing on that particular day (presumably by contacting a server).
I have kasperspy set on a fairly high level and it always warns of registry changes. It doesn't warn me of anything like that when I run the activation program.

 

[papaschtroumpf]

this looks interesting but I'm not trusting software that doesn't even have a clear terms and conditions.

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: papaschtroumpf
this looks interesting but I'm not trusting software that doesn't even have a clear terms and conditions.

All the software comes with its own individual EULA (aka terms & conditions) when you install it. Its the standard click here to agree thing before they install. I've read each of the ones I've installed and there's nothing I've found objectionable in them.
Since the site doesn't ask for any personal information, thats probably why they dont have a separate policy.

 

[Jiggz]

As long as they don't ask for my SSN, I'm good with free software. Aside from spam I don't ever remember getting anything free from online! Of course, ads and virus are like the "bread and butter" and "spoiled milk" of the web which are shoved to our throats without choice!

 

[papaschtroumpf]

is anyone running zone alrm or a similar firewall? does the installer access the internet? I'm guessing it has to. if so, thre is no telling what it's phoning home with.

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: papaschtroumpf
is anyone running zone alrm or a similar firewall? does the installer access the internet? I'm guessing it has to. if so, thre is no telling what it's phoning home with.

It has to in order to activate, otherwise someone could set their computer clock to the date it was offered.
But since its not installing anything or screwing with registry (kaspersky would alert me) its not going to be able to send back that much in the brief time it connects.

If you really want to find out exactly what it does, install windows with vmware or similar virtual setup (they have free versions of those things) and use a packet sniffer to see exactly what it sends. Then just delete the virtual install and you have no possible contamination.



I did some googling and found this post by one of the web site guys:

Well, no secrets, guys, we have the agreement with the software company that develops the product, and this agreement is for a _limited_ timeframe only. That's why the software is only free for a limited period of time.
If you like the product we provide you for free, you might want to look at their other products, and buy their software. If you buy their software, you make software companies happy and they return to us with more giveaways, and, moreover, tell others about us, which means - new software titles for giveaways.
Yes, we make some money for us too, using ads on our web-site. We pay part of this income to software companies for software licenses (you get _licensed_ software at Giveawayoftheday) , though, because we value their efforts on making the software and we value legal software as well.

So I imagine they get a kickback if you click one of the other products from the same software company (they are listed on the right side of the screen when you download a free proram) and buy it.
Another possible way to make money is if you start to liking a program and want it on another computer, or have a crash or format (since these programs can ONLY be installed and activated on that particular day).

 

[Devistater]

Today's looks like a very useful tool
DiskInternals CD & DVD Recovery
Worth $30.
I've recently found a couple corrupt CD's I burned a while back, so this should come in handy. Hopefully it does what it says it does.