Today I was fighting a mighty battle with a WordPress site which just didn’t want to migrate, when I got stabbed in the back by a former ally, Filezilla.
Filezilla, the “free” FTP client I’ve used for years, is still a good tool. No doubt there. It’s just that it’s a Trojan Horse for crap I don’t want to install on my computer.
By default, you’ll install Filezilla from Sourceforge. Or, that used to be the case. Now, you download an installer which will then download the .exe for Filezilla. While doing so, you’re offered to install a bunch of crap and change your home page to Sourceforge’s latest evil sponsor of the day. You can cancel, of course. It’ll just do you no good.
Because soon after cancelling, a “friendly program” wanting to “help me fix my computer” popper up. Oh, hello PC Utilites, I don’t remember seeing you in my camp before. Or downloading you. Or installing you. Oh, Sourceforge let you in?
See, here’s the thing. I don’t care if Filezilla is a good product. If downloading and installing it means I’ll have to uninstall a bunch of crap afterwards, it’s not worth using it. Or recommending it to anyone.
So I moved on and am now getting to know Cyberduck, as suggested by Nicholas D. (Stalk him here on Twitter). The installation process was surprisingly refreshing. “Click here. BOOM. HERE’S THE FILE YOU ASKED. WHAT, YOU WANTED SPYWARE? WELL, SCREW YOU. NOW INSTALL IT. BOOM. DONE.”
I’m sorry, Filezilla, as much as I’d like to let you into my house again, I won’t open the door because who knows what friends you’ll bring next time.
Farewell, Filezilla. 🙂