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eXeem Lite Public Beta Released 289

Posted by timothy from the one-down-manship dept.
TheKarateMaster writes "Just days after the release of eXeem Open Beta comes eXeem lite 0.19 Public Beta. Much like with KaZaA, the official version of eXeem comes chock full of spy/adware -- specifically, cydoor. eXeem lite is spyware free and free of bloat -- and free. Version .20, which should fix a few minor bugs, is expected 'in next coming days.' (read: soon)"
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eXeem Lite Public Beta Released More

eXeem Lite Public Beta Released

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  • Good news for the computer savvy (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sjrstory ( 839289 ) * on Sunday January 23, 2005 @10:04AM (#11447388) Homepage
    Whilst this is excellent news indeed, I fear only the so called "computer savvy" will reap the benefits of this (ie no spyware). There are a lot of people out there who seemingly click at random through the World Wide Wreckage, completely and utterly naive of the dangers they face. And there are others who just can't be bothered to protect themself from spyware, data loss, scams, identity theft, etc.

    Does this sound familiar:

    Clueless user: Hrm, that looks like a good idea. Click. Install. Now why is my computer slow and always crashing? Better call my tech boy genius neighbor!

    Tech boy genius neighbor: OMFG what did you do!?

    I commend the software venders that do their best to protect those who need protecting the most. Even Microsoft is looking into integrating Spyware search and destroy tools into Windows. It pays to get with the times!

    • Re:Good news for the computer savvy (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Uber Banker ( 655221 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @10:21AM (#11447450)
      Mentioning mindless clicking and downloading - the story takes you to a website where the eXeemLite software just downloads.

      WTF? Computer savvy?

      Download a cracked version of some shadowy software - and trust that its 100% legit??? Why not publish MD5 sum of the package which can be verified by expert users willing to take the plunge?

      Plus, has anyone tried this on WINE?
    • Replace "Better call my tech boy genius neighbor!" with "Better call my ISP! They can fix anything! They will fix anything!"

      Seriously. People call their ISP tech support whenever their PC gets slow, regardless if it's slow when they're actually using the Internet or not.

      Anyways, back on topic. I downloaded the last beta lite version of eXeem, and I couldn't find a damn thing I wanted.
      • I work tech support for a company that provides internet in hotel rooms across the country. You're not wrong. Generally people tend to be very relieved when they get a "computer guy" on the phone, and will bug them about anything and everything because hey...i called you about my computer, right? Meanwhile i've got 3 other people on hold. Ugh.
      • Ironically, I'm reading this from my ISP tech support job, and you'd be stunned how bad the calls get. And probably how far we go to fix them sometimes.

        I'd say about 0.1% of calls, if that, could show any hint of being our problem. People don't just call us about the net being slow, they ask us about MSN, printers, screen resolutions, everything. I think my favourite calls have been as follows:

        1. "Close that window, please" "How do I do that?" "Just click the X at the top right corner" "What is an X?"

        2.
        • I've had phone calls similar to what you describe (level 1 tech support grunt here). My favorite has to be where they call in with a game console hooked to their cable modem and expect us to troubleshoot it. A coworker even had someone refuse to hook up their PC to troubleshoot the connection.
    • Tech boy genius neighbor: OMFG what did you do!?

      Clueless user: Nothing, it just started acting funny.

      Tech boy genius neighbor: Have you installed anything since I fixed your computer last time?

      Clueless user: No.

      Tech boy genius neighbor (BOFH level now 1): So you computer, for no reason whatsoever, started to slow down as if by magic?

      Clueless user: Yeah.

      Tech boy genius neighbor (BOFH level now 2): I guess your screwed, then. Sounds like your computer is dying and may catch fire any minute.
    • "Tech boy genius neighbor: OMFG what did you do!?"

      Wrong.

      Tech boy genius neighbor: Ah hah! Now I get to charge him more for his cluelessness! Now I can afford to buy that hot new gamer's case!

      God (Torvalds) bless spyware!

  • Guess Exeem Lite is the end of Exeem (Score:3, Interesting)

    by barcodez ( 580516 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @10:04AM (#11447390)
    Which is only good news as the poliferation of spyware is just a waste of everyones time and and invasion of privacy.
    • Pity really - they had a chance, and screwed it. I couldn't care less if the software I use (assuming it's free) has a banner ad somewhere in it.

      I get extremely pissed off if it includes spyware and then the developers lie about it.

      Long live Exeem Lite! May the creator of Exceem make no profit on it at all.
      • Long live Exeem Lite! May the creator of Exceem make no profit on it at all.

        Perhaps, but perhaps not. There isn't much information out there about how the Exeem actually network works, but I get the distinct impression that the Exeem servers are necessary for it to function. Do they merely act as a gateway to the network, are purely for the Spyware/Ad serving, or (as I suspect) are integral to providing the Kazaa style "search engine"? More importantly, can Exeem Lite still function if those servers a

      • "I get extremely pissed off if it includes spyware and then the developers lie about it."

        If you read the privacy policy for eXeem it openly states:

        Third Party Advertising
        The ads appearing on the Exeem.com Web site and within eXeem(TM) application are delivered by our web advertising partner, Cydoor. Information about users of eXeem(TM) and Exeem.com, such as the number of times they have viewed an ad (but not user name, address, or other personal information), is used to serve ads to users. If you would

  • Azureus Plugin for Exeem (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 23, 2005 @10:09AM (#11447409)
    Somebody please write an Azureus plugin for Exeem!

  • Good News! (Score:5, Funny)

    by codesurfer ( 786910 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @10:10AM (#11447418)
    From the FAQ There are currently no versions of eXeem(TM) for Linux or Mac. No way to install spyware on my Linux box? Awwww, what a shame!

    • Re:Good News! (Score:2, Informative)

      by rollx ( 830963 )
      I tryed it on my freebsd box under wine emulator. Now way. It's just throwing me messages like:
      "where is your IE? I need ActiveX!!!"
      no thanks.
      (and why should /. "advertize" things like eXeem?)
      • A lot of things require some version of IE to run in wine. Visio was smart enough to offer to go download a copy and install it. Not that I'm happy about IE on my box, but if its a dependency, then so be it.
    • FYI and anyone else for that matter...
      eXeem lite appears to work well under the latest Crossover Wine... Of course that doesnt negate the requirement for a less encumbered open source incarnation.

  • New name for Exeem Lite (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 23, 2005 @10:10AM (#11447420)
    eXLax - Exeem without the crap.

  • So... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by slavemowgli ( 585321 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @10:12AM (#11447428) Homepage
    How long until the eXeem makers either sue or try to ban lite users from the network?

    • Re:So... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Jugalator ( 259273 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @10:27AM (#11447473) Journal
      They've already said they'll try to do that.

      But since it's not an option to me to use a Cydoor-infested eXeem, I'll just use other software in replacement of this one, and maybe eXeem Lite for however long I can. For replacements, BT trackers are still around, alive and highly functional, and solve the whole deal with the Kazaaification eXeem might experience too. For more rare stuff than might be found on BT networks, there's always uncentralized networks like Kademlia. Slower downloads, but an amazing selection.

    • Ban users from the network ? Implications... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Animaether ( 411575 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @11:53AM (#11447860) Journal
      Wait... if they have the ability to 'ban (lite) users from the network', then they have the ability to 'ban individuals engaging in the act of distributing copyrighted works without prior permission to do so'.

      Which means that they would become a prime target for whichever media copyright maintenance agency applies to them.

      Unless I'm missing something.
    • Soon I would expect. Assuming they only want authorised users using the correct eXeem client connecting to their servers they would be well within their rights to do so.

  • A shame original bittorrent didn't use GPL (Score:5, Insightful)

    by xDCDx ( 635101 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @10:18AM (#11447444)
    If only Bram Cohen would had licensed the original bittorrent under the GPL (rather than the MITL), people would not be able to profit so easily from his work.

    Granted, the trackerless protocol surely took some work, but the base BT protocol (and its implementation) was the revolutionary thing.

    I hate companies providing adware software like Kazaa or Exeem, that promise you heaven on earth, and actually offer subpar programs, that would have much more quality as an opensource project (see eDonkey vs eMule).

    • Re:A shame original bittorrent didn't use GPL (Score:5, Informative)

      by costas ( 38724 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @10:32AM (#11447489) Homepage
      Even if he had done so, there are tons of BT-compatible codebases out there (Azureus is in Java, BitComet in C++, libtorrent in C AFAIK); the license of the original Python client is not the issue. Unless of course you mean that Mr. Cohen should have either patented or claimed copyright on the BT protocol itself which is (to say the least) very much against the spirit of the GPL.
      • Unless of course you mean that Mr. Cohen should have either patented or claimed copyright on the BT protocol itself which is (to say the least) very much against the spirit of the GPL.

        Protocols can't be copyrighted.
      • I'm not so sure that would have been against the spirit of the GPL. The GPL use copyright to say "Normally, you couldn't do anything to distribute this, but I'm letting you, as long as you keep things free in some specific sense of the word."

        I think that claiming ownership of the protocol and then saying that the protocol was liscensed freely for use in GPL'd programs would be exactly in the spirit of the GPL. The GPL is all about using the power that you have to keep things open.

        • I think that claiming ownership of the protocol and then saying that the protocol was liscensed freely for use in GPL'd programs would be exactly in the spirit of the GPL.

          Protocols are ideas; they can't be copyrighted, but they can be patented or trade-secreted. If a GPL program is the first to implement an unpatented protocol, then there's nothing prohibiting a reimplementation in a BSD licensed program or a proprietary program.

    • "If only Bram Cohen would had licensed the original bittorrent under the GPL (rather than the MITL), people would not be able to profit so easily from his work."

      Presumably it's not the profit which is the problem, so much as the creation of non-Free software which is competing in an an unfair* way with the original.

      *unfair as in, one project can take freely from the other, but not vice-versa.

      But we all already knew this right? It's not like RMS warned us in 1985 about the problems with non-GPL licenses.
    • If only Bram Cohen would had licensed the original bittorrent under the GPL (rather than the MITL), people would not be able to profit so easily from his work.

      And we wouldn't have exeem. Unless, of course, you can point out an open source solution that provides the same (and better, according to you) features compared to exeem?

      Don't you hate it when people complain about the GPL restricting their free use of software? You are complaining about another person's use of a license.

      When you release your software, you get to choose the license. Don't complain about another author's choice of license. I want other people to use my software, even to make money off it. Therefore I use the BSD license. We have philisophical and political differences, but that doesn't make my choice bad and your choice good. In my case, I don't want to force others to give back to the 'community' - I let them choose how they contribute (or if) to society. The GPL preference is to tell people, "Use my software and you have to release all your efforts - if not, I'm taking my toys and going home."

      Sarcasm aside, each has its advantages and disadvantages. I suspect many choose the GPL not because they have an altruistic desire to further society. Many release it for the reasons you imply when you say, "people would not be able to profit so easily from his work." They don't want other people profiting off their work. "If I can't or didn't make money off it, neither can you." Which, I feel, is a very different goal than the claimed altruism of the GPL.

      I don't mean to imply that most people have this in mind when choosing a license, but I've seen this side of the license debate more than I care to.

      -Adam
      • You made a good point.

        Exeem opensource alternative: http://kenosis.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]. Probably needs more work, more recognition and a slightly nicer website (well, and a license, it does not seem to have one).

        If I make some useful piece of software in my spare time, I would not care that some John Doe would profit from it, or even that companies like Google would profit from it; but I wouldn't stand companies like Microsoft, Kazaa or Exeem earning money from it. So it has to be everyone or no one (tha
        • Since when were corporations founded to be your friend?

          They weren't. They exist to make money for their shareholders. They are *not* people. Stop trying to ascribe personality traits to them! Eventually, when it comes down to the bottom line or being 'cool' in the fickle eyes of geeks, they'll favor the bottom line.

          I don't see why you believe that companies exist for any reason OTHER than to make money.
      • Yes, but the GPL allows you to go dual-license. Qt does that; you can use Qt as GPL'ed software and be obligated to release all your efforts, or you can buy a commercial license and keep your code improvements to yourself.

        "You can (1) repay me with money or (2) repay releasing your improvements to the community. Your choice."

        Sometimes people like to eat.
      • I wouldn't say the GPL is so much about "I don't want people to profit from my work" as it is "I don't want other people to take away my control over my work." With BSD (or public domain, for that matter) anyone can come along and take your work, advertise their proprietary fork, and then -- here's the issue -- make their fork incompatible in order to destroy the value of you choosing the BSD license to begin with. After all, you gave away your software because you wanted it to be a common base for intero

  • Is this true? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by unorthod0x ( 263821 )
    the official version of eXeem comes chock full of spy/adware -- specifically, cydoor

    Can this above comment be explained? I downloaded and installed eXeem, it did not appear to include any spyware whatsoever. It certainly did not come packaged with Cydoor. What's the deal here?
    • True. Congratulations, you've just installed Cydoor. Lets hope you didn't opt for the Explorer toolbar option as well...
      • not true.
        i installed it being aware of the cydor possiblility. After installing, there were no registry entries by cydor, no cydor dlls present nor were any processes running.
        So it wasnt installed.
    • They're not exactly hiding the fact... Check the privacy statement [exeem.com]:

      Third Party Advertising
      The ads appearing on the Exeem.com Web site and within eXeem(TM) application are delivered by our web advertising partner, Cydoor. Information about users of eXeem(TM) and Exeem.com, such as the number of times they have viewed an ad (but not user name, address, or other personal information), is used to serve ads to users. If you would like more information about Cydoor, please visit: http://www.cydoor.com/Cydoor

    • I downloaded and installed eXeem, it did not appear to include any spyware whatsoever. It certainly did not come packaged with Cydoor.

      Oh yes it did [exeem.com]:

      The ads appearing on the Exeem.com Web site and within eXeem(TM) application are delivered by our web advertising partner, Cydoor. Information about users of eXeem(TM) and Exeem.com, such as the number of times they have viewed an ad (but not user name, address, or other personal information), is used to serve ads to users.

      Don't think that just becau

    • I also downloaded this. I had no problems with spyware. Checking the /windows/system32/adcache/ shows no files in there. Running AdAware and SpyBot turns up no spyware found. Searching the registry for "cydoor" turns up no results.

      Maybe an early beta had Cydoor in it?

      Maybe someone is just trying to get traffic by spreading rumors about a really nice tool.

    • Re:Is this true? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by bunsonh ( 228637 )
      I'm not doubting the fact that eXeem installed Cydoor into their client, but I checked out the details that Symantec [sarc.com] offers regarding Cydoor, and neither of the .dll files, nor registry entries occur on my computer. So, either this is a different version of Cydoor, or eXeem has not installed it on my box yet.

      I most certainly installed eXeem from the eXeem website. I don't know what's going on.

  • Easy fix (Score:5, Informative)

    by Barny ( 103770 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @10:30AM (#11447483) Journal
    Easy fix, easyer than DLing and maintaining a differant client...

    Delete files in c:\windows\system32\AdCache

    Set all user permissions on folder c:\windows\system32\AdCache to deny (no access)

    block/deny:
    *cydoor.com/*
    *cms.com/*

    It doesn't complain if the ads are not comming in, it just throws them up :)
    • You sure about the cms.com? Visiting the site, doesn't show anything ad or spyware related.

    • Re:Easy fix (Score:5, Insightful)

      by illumin8 ( 148082 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @11:36AM (#11447750) Journal
      Easy fix, easyer than DLing and maintaining a differant client...

      Delete files in c:\windows\system32\AdCache

      Set all user permissions on folder c:\windows\system32\AdCache to deny (no access)

      block/deny:
      *cydoor.com/*
      *cms.com/*

      It doesn't complain if the ads are not comming in, it just throws them up :)

      Although I appreciate the information, I'd just as soon not have the spyware installed on my computer in the first place. Unless you've sat there with a debugger and stepped through Cydoor one instruction at a time, how do you know it doesn't stick copies of itself somewhere else, or trojan another binary along the way? These spyware programs are notorious for nasty tricks like that.

      Also, I remember reading in the previous article that uninstalling Cydoor causes Exeem to stop working, so you're still better off using the Lite client.

      Please don't support spyware or authors that include spyware in their products. There are better ways to make money, and decent programmers can simply use Paypal or some other method of donationware to make a buck, while still delivering value (and most importantly goodwill) to their users.

      My guess is the real reason why they're funding this using Adware is that the original Suprnova was mostly funded by banner ads, and they still need a revenue stream. Of course, now the editors are no longer screening content, so what they bring to the table (besides the application) is not as much.

  • If you hate the spyware, why support the network? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    If it's because you want to take advantage of the # of users, have you considered that they are primarily the type of users that install spyware-ridden software on their PCs? Is that the type of user community you want to get files from, and share with?

    What good reason is there to use eXeem? If you want to use a popular program that a lot of people use, what problem does eXeem solve that Kazaa doesn't?

    Is eXeem supposed to be considered the second coming strictly because Suprnova shut down? Anybody who rel

  • A bit biased? (Score:2, Informative)

    by b00stA ( 839177 )
    the official version of eXeem comes chock full of spy/adware -- specifically, cydoor.

    Check your sources.
    eXeem does not come with a bunch of spy/adware. It comes with exactly one: Cydoor. Which is adware, only displaying ads.
    • For now. A company willing to bundle adware is just a step away from bundling spyware, and I'm just not willing to trust them not to take that step. I'll wait until somebody comes up with a good, fast, anonymous, encrypted, OPEN P2P protocol with an open sourced cross-platform client like Azureus. That'll happen soon or later, if it hasn't already.

      I mean, Bram Cohen is one smart cookie, and had user anonymity been one of his design goals (it wasn't) I have no doubt that the **AAs would be having a much

  • Not FOSS (Score:3, Insightful)

    by offerk ( 764276 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @10:59AM (#11447581) Journal

    eXeem lite is spyware free and free of bloat -- and free

    This isn't Free (libre) software, so while it is nice that it doesn't cost anything, neither does the official eXeem, so it is not better in that respect.

    As for the claim that the official version comes with spyware and that this "lite" version doesn't - several posters have already said they couldn't find any spyware after installing eXeem.
    As for eXeem-lite, if I can't see the source, why should I believe the site that claims it is spyware-free? Because the say so?

  • Uhm... Why do they bother with eXeem at all? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by vitalyb ( 752663 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @11:11AM (#11447626) Homepage
    Sure, it is much HYPED app. But I've yet to hear about how great it actually is. Who even said it will catch and deliver? Why eXeem lite and not X lite, when X can be any ad-sponsored program on ZeroPaid [zeropaid.com]?

    And while we on it. Why so many Slashdot articles on this? Promote it when eXeem is worth it.
  • you can neuter most cydoor apps using the dummy cd_clint.dll files from here [cexx.org]. Using these, the apps will still run but no more ads! My boss had installed a GRE word prep program and it didn't work after I cleaned up with AdAware (kept saying cd_clint.dll not found or something). I replaced it with this and everything was a-okay!
    • Umm.... yes, but IMHO, this is still just a band-aid; not a real solution.

      It might stop the ads, but the app itself is still there, wasting CPU cycles in the background, checking those files to see if there's a new ad to display on your screen.

      If Ad-Aware didn't do a complete clean-up, it's probably best to try a different removal tool. (I suspect the new Microsoft Anti-Spyware beta would fix this for you, in fact.)

  • eXeem is NOT related to Bittorrent in any way! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Jagasian ( 129329 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @12:30PM (#11448063)
    eXeem is NOT related to Bittorrent in any way. It does not use the Bittorrent protocol nor an extension of it. It is yet another P2P application/network that is trying to captilize on an already popular application/network/protocol. Considering that it is closed source, Windows only, spyware stricken, and leeching off of Bittorrent's popularity, it would be wise to boycott eXeem.

    If you want to use a P2P application that combines the swarming of Bittorrent with distributed indexing, searching, and tracking, try one of the eDonkey apps such as aMule [amule.org], eMule, eDonkey2000, etc. Many of them are open source, spyware free, and run on multiple platforms. Since the eDonkey network has been around for a long time, it is filled with a variety of content. However, Bittorrent is still the fastest P2P protocol for raw data transfer, so don't drop it, just find a few good torrent sites.
    • I will add to this and say that Exeem is not Suprnova reincarnated either. The company paid the creator to attach his name and grab the previous Suprnova userbase.

      This is just a new "kazaa", and frankly I won't be using it because what I liked about Suprnova so much was the organization, the moderation the editors did with the files, and the ability to see on the front page what recent things were added to which categories.

      I mean, its like when you walk into a Blockbuster and you don't know what you want.

  • Spyware infested and binary only... Why do i even want to touch it?

    Does it increase my anonymity? Does it increase available downloads?

    Really.. why do i care about such a beast when there are 'safer' alternatives ( for both my computer and my actions )

  • How is it different from Kazaa/eDonkey/etc..? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by stickyc ( 38756 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @01:32PM (#11448421) Homepage
    Due to the spyware, I'm not likely to install eXeem anytime soon, some questions to those who have:

    One of BitTorrent's strengths was that it was very difficult to spoof content. IE - If you trusted the tracker, you knew exactly what you were downloading. Given eXeem's new "everyone's a tracker" marketing, is it now vulnerable to spoofing? If a user posts a malicious file under an alternate name, what's to prevent everyone from downloading it? Are there safeguards to protect the network from being flooded with invalid files?

    Functionally, how is eXeem different from other P2P clients? My idea of what goes on is; You do a search across all files shared on the eXeem network, pick a file you like, and start downloading from peers. That's roughly the same thing with Kazaa, etc. What's the advantage of using eXeem?

  • If I were developing something like exeem, I'd have seen this coming a mile away and taken action from the very beginning of the design phase. Given how likely this neutering was, wouldn't it have made sense to put some obvious spyware in and then write a custom component, less blatant, that'd get shipped along with any 'lite' version once the obvious danger had been removed? In any case, I wouldn't want any program I had to fight with in order to make not attack me on my computer in the first place. Just o

  • It's NOT free.. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by sudog ( 101964 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @02:21PM (#11448696) Homepage
    ..until I can recompile it myself.

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