Come October 2011,
Softpedia will be 10 years old! It’s hard
to believe, but that’s a whole decade’s worth of free software downloads,
relevant news and reviews.
Besides being provided
free of charge, our downloads are
also
fresh, as “updated 1 minute ago” is not just our motto, we actually do live
up to it. They’re
fast, too, since we put our three mirrors’ combined
1.5Gbps bandwidth
to good use. Last but not least, we aim to only provide
safe downloads. That’s
why each listed product goes through a special testing process which, if
passed, grants the widely recognized
Softpedia “100% Clean” or “100% Free” distinctions.
We also have a very strict policy regarding software that contains
third party components, either embedded or installed along the program itself
as optional. Such products are listed as “
ad-supported”, a term we have come up
with to better represent software this category than just calling them “adware”,
but only if the third party components are not a threat. In such cases, or when
the components are not optional or, even worse, are installed silently without
user consent, the software isn’t listed at all.
When available, we’ll always prefer to provide download
links for the “clean” version of the installers instead of the ad-supported
one. For all ad-supported software we also tell you what the additional components
are, so you can make your own decision if you want to install the software or
not.
We’ve stood by this policy even when it led to disputes
with the developers. Fortunately, we’ve only had a handful of disagreements,
which we handled by choosing to protect the users, even if it meant we had to
delist or stop updating the software in cause.
We’d like to stress that, unlike other software download providers,
we never modify, supplement or repack the setup files. Each installer you get
from Softpedia is the exact same
original one that was published by the software’s developer
and won’t have you end up with an “extra” toolbar or application in your
system.
Another thing we love doing is treat you to
software giveaways, something we've started to do
weekly this year. And it's just going to get better!
For Softpedia, this
10 year anniversary will be more than
just a mark in the calendar, it will be the beginning of
a new era. Don’t
worry, we’re still going to be the Softpedia you’ve come to know and love since
2001. Be assured that we’ll continue to offer
Free, Fresh, Fast, Clean and
Original software downloads, real news and fair software and game reviews. We’re
just going to crank it up to 200%. Starting October, expect to see new features
rolled out, along with major improvements and garnished with a few surprises,
to taste.
Developers, don’t feel let out! We consider you a major asset
and so far we have tried to meet your needs as best as we could. All software
submissions are free of charge and processed on a first-come-first-served
basis, in 24 to 48 hours. There’s
no fee for getting in front of the line and
we intend to keep it that way.
There are no “premium” or “detailed” listings,
we treat all developers and software products the same and that’s going to stay
the same, too. Access to our
dedicated download mirrors is open to everyone,
you don’t have to pay a dime if your setup files are hosted by us.
We do not make
any modifications or additions to your
installers; we do not repack them or supplement them with third-party or
self-made components; we believe the right to decide how your software is
delivered to end users is yours alone just like users have the right not to
have anything forced upon them.
Throughout the years, we’ve listened to your feedback,
praise and, sometimes, complaints, and have done our best to improve your
listings or quickly come up with a fix when we made a mistake.
What we are going to change is the level of interaction and amount
of information when it comes to adding, listing and monitoring your software on
Softpedia. We’re hard at work on
a full-featured developer area which will
enable you to submit both new software and updates even faster, monitor several
metrics regarding your products’ performance and popularity and contact us in a
reliable, quick and secure way.
We estimate we’ll be able to get this innovative
developer-targeted feature out the door by the end of 2011. We’ll send a shout
out to all developers when it’s ready, but in the meantime feel free to contact
us if you have any questions.
We hope that all Softpedians, both users and developers,
look forward to the evolution of Softpedia as much as we do.
Thank you for staying
with us for the past 10 years and remember, the new era starts in Q4 2011!
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