this post was submitted on 27 May 2025
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I remember when McAfee first came out. They posted a free version to all the pirate sites everywhere and anywhere they could. Once everybody got hooked on it, cause it was actually somewhat good back then, they went to a pay model. Sleezy but effective.
1988 is long before 'pirate sites everywhere*'. They might have done that at some point, but the product would have been around a decade old or more.
*Yeah software piracy has been a thing for a long time, but I don't think McAfee was going around dialing every BBS it could find just to spread the program, the users were happy to do that themselves.
I remember all those years ago reading my first EULA for some software I bought. It mostly explained how the software company provided no reparation or responsibility for the software that they created and sold. It was then I decided I was gonna pirate if they were gonna be so sleazy.
Don't admit that you read one too much. A court case was recently decided where EULAs are basically no longer enforceable, because the judge ruled that "no one actually reads those things because you made them too long."
Have not read one in over 20yrs and retired now.
Makes sense. I have experienced disk utilities that ruined the file system, and of course there was really nothing I could do about it. I think that was also McAfee (But might have been Norton - I was desperately switching between all of them that day)
Mcafee came out in 87. I am almost 70 so it all blends together. I had an Apple BBS (The ASCII Exchange. Manuals only) then I switched to PC at some point. Guess it could have been BBS’s. I remember that people would stash pirated software on unsuspecting businesses computers default FTP etc. and post the address. What I can’t remember clearly (aphantasia) is which medium.
It was a BBS back then. John McAfee wasn't known to be a raging psychotic douche then either.