Is Palm Freeware Safe?

[mcaren]

Am new to PDAs -- are there risks associated w/downloading Palm freeware (pda equiv. to spyware, etc.)? [I can understand why some pc freeware companies offer stuff -- esp. when they add things to your machine w/o your knowledge -- but why would palm freeware developers be so generous?] thanks. mcaren

[05Edge]

Some people just like to share. Some is a way to get people to look into their other utilities, and some just believe in the open source movement. I've never had any malicious freeware that I know of, but I've only been a Palm user for about 4 months now, and I don't download everything out there.... just what I think I'll like.

[Dick Tracy]

Almost all of the palm freeware is without any malicious code. You have no need to purchase screensavers, anti virus suites or the like. A reliable source of freeware is palmgear.com where there are user reviews and ratings. Another good source is freewarepalm.com (make sure you have a popup blocker on for this site).

You did not mention which model of PDA you have. The newer Palms have OS5.4 which has NVFS. Some of the older applications are not compatible. There are compatibility lists for many newer models at palmfocus.com.

If you have a doubt about a particular application, you are welcome to ask about it here as well.

Happy software hunting.

[mcaren]

I steal his constantly. Am looking for a cheaper model myself, but haven't decided on one yet. I am more of a geek than he is, so I'm usually the one adding apps. Paid for Bejeweled, but would like to refrain from spending more (esp. for games). Thanks for the info.

[_Em]

I think someone around here created a list of "must have" free software for recent Palm devices... it might have been in either the TX or LifeDrive section. HMaki and SMBMate are good places to start ;)

[Cygnet]

I steal his constantly. Am looking for a cheaper model myself, but haven't decided on one yet. I am more of a geek than he is, so I'm usually the one adding apps. Paid for Bejeweled, but would like to refrain from spending more (esp. for games). Thanks for the info.


A couple of things I would add are,

a) Generally freeware as stated above is OK people like to share.... but very occasionally you will find an application that your Palm will take exception too or the app will take an exception to your Palm leaving you in a Hard reset situation or with corruption of dbs (this happened to me with perhaps some slightly more esoteric hacks / da ) so my second piece of advice would be

b) backup to PC (or MAC) regularly or even better (particularly if 'borrowing' the hubbys palm ;) ) is to install a backup program, I can personally recommend resco-backup but there are a few others... a comment then can start a thread on its own.
backup up prior to installing 'iffy' freeware and restore if it all goes pearshaped and nobody is none the wiser.

Lastly I have read of Palm viruses / trojans but I am convinced that this is scare tactics either by a certain other large software vendor with inferior, slower 'multitasking' products (yet another thread on its own) or by software vendors trying to sell the lastest 'security software'

HTH

SC

[Dick Tracy]

I steal his constantly. Am looking for a cheaper model myself, but haven't decided on one yet. I am more of a geek than he is, so I'm usually the one adding apps. Paid for Bejeweled, but would like to refrain from spending more (esp. for games). Thanks for the info.
Get a TX. The Z22 with low-res and no SD will not satisfy a geek. The E2 has some issues and you really want WiFi ;).

If you act fast, a great deal can be had at OfficeDepot, details here (http://discussion.brighthand.com/palmhandhelds/showthread.php?s=&threadid=91496).

[_Em]

Plus, there's a guy who sells for low, low prices on eBay... there are a few threads about it (Dmitry tends to find the links) on here.

[kiteandcamera]

Cygnet makes two very good points. I emphasize that you make a habit of backing up your handheld data. If you test beta apps, there vould be bugs that would cause you to hard reset your device. Some 'poorly written' apps or those not updated to run on newer operating systems can cause problems. With so much software out there, it is possible to have conflicts leading to crashes, freezes and hard resets. All in all, the majority of free software you try will be just fine. Don't try to do to much at one time and keep your backups current. Have fun!!

[goonie]

Just one more person to chime in. Yes, freeware for the Palm is very safe, and often is as good or better than commercial software. Dick Tracy's two sources are reputable, and where I always check first. There are plenty of worthwhile commercial applications that may be worth your spending money, but even those can mostly be trialed for a limited period of time for free.

If you're adventuresome and download lots of applications, you may have issues with software conflicting with other pieces of software, or software that taxes the available memory resulting in crashes. That's pretty much a hit-or-miss thing specific to the combination of things you have running on your Palm. Thankfully, viruses are not an issue, however.

If you think you're going to tinker with lots of software titles, I have one suggestion for software that is worth paying money, and that is Uninstall Manager by Northglide:

http://www.northglide.com/

That program monitors every application you load on your Palm and makes sure that if you wish to delete an application, all of the related files get deleted as well. It's possible to have "orphan" files floating around if you delete applications directly from the Palm's launcher.

[intellidryad]

Get a backup software, you'd need them whenever an app screws up. Restoring via hotsync never worked for me, it always stops at the "graffiti shortcut files".

Most freeware are good, but some (a tiny number, though) might not be compatible with some models, causing a crash, or worse, hard-reset. However, hard-resets don't always come from freeware. Docs to go just screwed up my device yesterday!

[Cygnet]

Just one more person to chime in. Yes, freeware for the Palm is very safe, and often is as good or better than commercial software. Dick Tracy's two sources are reputable, and where I always check first. There are plenty of worthwhile commercial applications that may be worth your spending money, but even those can mostly be trialed for a limited period of time for free.

If you're adventuresome and download lots of applications, you may have issues with software conflicting with other pieces of software, or software that taxes the available memory resulting in crashes. That's pretty much a hit-or-miss thing specific to the combination of things you have running on your Palm. Thankfully, viruses are not an issue, however.

If you think you're going to tinker with lots of software titles, I have one suggestion for software that is worth paying money, and that is Uninstall Manager by Northglide:

http://www.northglide.com/

That program monitors every application you load on your Palm and makes sure that if you wish to delete an application, all of the related files get deleted as well. It's possible to have "orphan" files floating around if you delete applications directly from the Palm's launcher.

Will second Northglide apps also, forgot to mention this in my earlier post :),

The uninstall app also has a 'sandbox' scenario where it will monitor the new app installed while you play... eerr i mean test it and will hopefully allow you to get out of any difficult situation.... before properly installing it,

Although I have never tried the sandbox option as I tend to go the if it breaks do a restore route, as I also think that an occasional Hard reset / fresh install or restore seems to clean / perk up my palm but I do 'mess' around continually with testing new apps in a true geek styleee, I think this last comment applies particularly to T5/X and Lifedrive as there have been numerous post regarding stability of these two machines with certain apps / scenarios.

SC

[pruss]

There is no spyware that I know of. There is such a thing as buggy software, of course.

[dmccunney]

Am new to PDAs -- are there risks associated w/downloading Palm freeware (pda equiv. to spyware, etc.)? [I can understand why some pc freeware companies offer stuff -- esp. when they add things to your machine w/o your knowledge -- but why would palm freeware developers be so generous?] thanks. mcaren
I have about 450 programs of various types installed on my Tapwave Zodiac 2.

My launcher (Launcher X), Documents to Go, Novarra's nWeb browser, pEdit, and Wordsmith are shareware/commercial apps I paid for. Everything else is freeware, and a lot of it is open source as well.

I have had no problems because of it.

The majority of Palm freeware is written by developers who do it as a hooby. A lot of it seems to be "What? There's no Palm program to do this? I'm a programmer! I'll write one!", and having gotten it to do what they need, release it so that other folks can use it as well.

Two sources I check regularly are Freeware Palm (http://www.freewarepalm.com) and PalmOpensource (http://www.palmopensource.com). Another source woth checking occasionally is Source forge (http://www.sourceforge.net), the largest repository of open source development efforts. A number of PalmOS projects are hosted there.

Just looking at the Main tab in Launcher X, where my most used applications reside, I have

Big Clock (http://www.bigclock.de), a superb clock/calendar/alarm/timer app
KsDatebook (http://www.freewarepalm.com/database/ksdatebook.shtml), a Datebook replacement with more features
KsToDo (http://www.freewarepalm.com/database/kstodo.shtml), a ToDo replacement with more features
LionDoc (http://www.lionscribe.com/liondoc.htm), a Palm "doc" reader that supports documents on a card and zText documents
MoePaint (http://www.pdaload.ru/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownloaddetails&lid=1091&ttitle=MoePaint&pid=palm), a color paint program
PalmFiction (http://palmfiction.sourceforge.net), an ebook viewer that handles doc files, zText files, RTF files, and plain ASCII text files
PalmPDF (http://www.metaviewsoft.de/en/Software/PalmOS/Freeware/PalmPDF/index.html), a PDF viewer for PalmOS that handles native Adobe PDF files
Plucker (http://www.plkr.org), an offline HTML file viewer
PsMemo (http://www.jove21.com/palm/palmware/psmemo/?ex-lang=en), a Memopad replacement with more features, and
TCPMP (http://tcpmp.corecodec.org/about), a media player that shows AVI and MPEG video, plays MP3 and Ogg music files, and displays JPG and PNG images among other things.

All are freeware. Big Clock, LionDoc, PalmFiction, PalmPDF, Plucker, and TCPMP are open source, too.
______
Dennis

[Dick Tracy]

Do check software compatibility lists for newer devices (OS5.4) as not everything plays well with NVFS. TX lists are at palmfocus.com and palmfacts.com. There are no lists for the E2 or Z22 although the T5 and Treo 650 lists at palmfocus will serve well as guides.

[I love my mom]

dmcunney: those are the top three visited links from my internet too

MY FREEWARE IS SAFE!!!! here (http://thembennetts.com/files/ACE4palm.zip) and here (http://thembennetts.com/file/TXT.zip) (ACE4palm and TXT+)

[JAmerican]

The only place spyware is effective is on a device thats always connected to the internet (cough Treos). But I don't think there is any for Palm OS anyway. I've made some freeware apps myself and I can assure you they are stable and safe :)

http://www.jamerican.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=6

GPACalc (my newest creation) and LauncherList (app that lists all your apps).

Simple but effective.

JAmerican

[cyberdude]

I've been using a PDA for over 6 years now. I've always had some freeware on my PDAs. I've never had any problem with it. Some freeware is better than the commercial stuff available (for instance, anything by Dmitry Grinberg is excellent stuff - you can get it at www.palmpowerups.com - both freeware and shareware). A great site for this software is www.freewarepalm.com, they have anything you could think of.

I would agree that most programmers who offer free apps are hoping that you'll go to their site and buy some of their commercial apps as well. There are those that do not do that. Alex Pruss for example writes wonderful hacks for OS5 and provides direct links to them, so you might never know that he also writes some great commercial stuff.

Unlike the PC world, in the PDA world you can't tell how good an application is by it's price. And although I have an app called PalmOS AntiVirus, it has never found anything, and I've had a lot of freeware on my PDA at one time or another. :D

[cyberdude]

The only place spyware is effective is on a device thats always connected to the internet (cough Treos). But I don't think there is any for Palm OS anyway. I've made some freeware apps myself and I can assure you they are stable and safe :)

http://www.jamerican.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=6

GPACalc (my newest creation) and LauncherList (app that lists all your apps).

Simple but effective.

JAmerican
JA, I tried to use your launcherlist app once before and had difficulty. I just tried again and had the same problem. I must be doing something wrong:

I run launcherlist
check include rom
tap top left corner for menu
tap save as TXT
exit program

the help says the launcherlist.txt file should be in the default directory of my card - but i can't find it. I'm using a TX with a 512mb sd card. Any help would be appreciated. I tried saving to memo as well, but there is no memo when I go into memos.

P.S. Thanks for making this app available, until now I didn't know who the author was (I didn't look at the about the first time I used it because I deleted it after I couldn't get it to work)

[PinCushionQueen]

I also cannot find the .txt file on my SD card when I try LauncherList. I even looked in all of the other directories on my card - but it just wasn't there. However, it does work fine when sending to MemoPad instead.

[Tam Hanna]

Hi,
as far as I know, no virii for the PalmOS really made it into the wild...

So, you can sleep safely and soundly! The 4 virii that exist never made it out of the labs

[cyberdude]

I also cannot find the .txt file on my SD card when I try LauncherList. I even looked in all of the other directories on my card - but it just wasn't there. However, it does work fine when sending to MemoPad instead.
Yes I see it in the memo list. :)

[ackmondual]

Your PC AV program should catch any viruses and spyware from freeware Palm app downloads meant for your PC, but i doubt these bad thigns even exist in this capacity in the first place, but I've been known to be wrong before. As for bad stuff meant for your Palm, when Palm had 90% marketshare, I was surprised to not see viruses wiping out ppl's handhelds. I'm sure there are actual reasons for doing this to a PC and not a pOS device, but I'm not aware of them. Else, alr mentioned, many Palm's don't have active connection to the internet, so some of the security risks we see today just don't apply.

Else, it may sound like freeware Palm apps have a catch, but there are also good things for the dev as well:
-don't have to worry about advertising costs - I'm sure they still want many ppl to use their apps, but at least there's less pressure to make $$ since they won't be making any here.
-Don't have to implement copy protection or anti-piracy mechanism - that's time wasted that could be directed into testing, touch-ups, or more development improvements
-lower liability - all apps' README files say the devs, freeware AND shareware are not responsible for if their app wrecks their system. That may be legally true, but there's a ideal and understanding that shareware should still have some insurance or warranty in working correctly no matter how many legal discaimers there are or how little $$ u pay for it. Even if this weren't the case, the user can make a stink about poor quality software that crashes, software that's subpar in use, and bad customer service in ESD reviews and here on these forums. That's SURE to cost that dev some business
-Not required to have tech support - ..... or quality TS at that. When you pay for shareware, doubtless that $$ also goes into tech support. Freeware devs are not obligated to provide this, altho many still do by email
-not required to update frequently - ... or at all for that matter. Updates to certain shareware apps have been crucial to their success. Like with reviews, word of mouth can add or subtract to a shareware dev's reputation if he's listening to customers and adding new features or fixes or just plum ignoring them. It would be much appreciated, but not required if the freeware apps are already highly useful and are stable. The freeware dev has the option to jump ship to focus on family or their day job and not worry about lost profits
-Give back to the community - Things have been good to them, they wanna give back especially to the freeware community w/o any strings attached. Donations will be asked to give some "oomph" to an ongoign project
-make it open source - let other devs help out and improve the freeware app. This won't happen with shareware.
-synergy - 'big word', but they can advertise with requests for donations, their other apps that r shareware, or for other real events like the Tsunami victims or AIDS awareness. This kinda stuff would be inappropriate for shareware apps

-boosts their skills - if they go into mobile development, it gives them experience in develping for low resource platforms. Else, it adds notches to ones resume with learning another thing
-become more intimate with hardware and system - from a geekiness side, not a naughty side :rolleyes:

Last 2 also apply to shareware apps, but meh, it's already listed so i ain't gonna delete it.