Log something crazy, but intresting.

Freeware that is pure “Evil”

Date: Nov 23, 2022

Over the years I have seen a lot of freeware that is being offered on the net. Some of that freeware is very tempting but beware it is evil in nature. I am being very honest, if there is no plan behind the freeware it is evil. What do I mean by freeware that is pure evil? To understand what it really means is by going deeper into the motive of the people/person who is offering the freeware.

Just to clarify I love freeware and open-source but there is a huge difference between freeware, free and open-source. I put everything in these 3 categories just to know what is the motive behind it. I am always very careful when the category is free, less careful when it's freeware and least on open-source. You would say that this is rubbish free software is also known as freeware and both words are interchangeable. No, look carefully this is what makes it different, this is what evil people use just to tempt you so that you fall into their trap.

Gmail is a freeware service by Google the motive behind this service is that once your free limit is over you would buy and upgrade the plan. Twitter and Facebook are freeware social networks what is their motive, here we are the products and they will show us ads and generate revenue. This is not good where ever we are the products one should be cautious. Always look at the motive why this service or the product is being offered to you at no cost.

Behind every product or service, there is a company or a non-profit organisation and the only way they can work is when they have money. Companies make money by generating revenue and non-profit by raising funds.

Now comes free, these items were never supposed to be free. Just for example Adobe Photoshop this application is never free you have to pay but if you search you will find this product free to download, some sites will also charge you way less than the official site and say it's pre-activated. What is the motive behind this free, can you take a wild guess? Adobe is not behind this they don't even know of such a service. There is an evil person sitting behind this offer, who wants to trap you in downloading and using it.

There is a study which was sponsored by Microsoft that states there is a 33% chance that users will encounter malware if these free items are used. What happens here is that these applications are bought from the official source, and then inside these applications, certain codes are changed, added and deleted. When you download and install them they work just fine, but what is happening in the background is unknown to a simple user.

Here is my story and this happened to me almost about two to three years back. I was working on a project and I had to make a video. I downloaded free software knowing that it is not freeware by that original company and it was pre-activated. I used it to finish the project and uninstalled the application. After about 6 months down the line, my system got hacked by ransomware that demanded cryptocurrency. All my files changed to an unknown extension and I could not do anything. Ultimately I had to format my whole system and start fresh.

The moral of the story I learned the hard way, even if your system has a security tool, first always back-up important files and folders to unlinked drives. Secondly, avoid free which is not supposed to be free. Thirdly always look at the motive behind the freeware. Freeware, free and open-source will only be evil if people want it to be evil.