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#11
The main reason for the "added Extras" in modern applications is the fact that these applications are "free to use" or "Free for personal use", as, with the huge range of software available for Windows, the "free option" is a good way to get users to use a particular product. There are often "Pro" versions of these applications and these come without the "addons",.
It basically comes down to the fact that developing software takes Time and therefore money to do, the developer needs to be paid in some form for their time, that's only fair. So they resort to having their product "sponsored" by someone else, to pay the bills. Of course it's not only the developers that use this method, some of the file repositories and download sites will have their own modified version of applications where they add things to the basic product, they have costs too.
Some of the tricks of the trade, such as hiding the additions from the users that chooses the default install, are a problem but an understandable one when you are paid for the number of "addon programs installed"
In many ways It comes down to user choice, if you buy commercial software, or the Pro, version, you pay the developer directly and you get a "clean" installer, if you want something for nothing, here is a price to pay.
I am not defending some developers who seem to have no judgement, in their choice of included addon, but cannot deny the right of someone to get paid for their work.
If you want free software, without the addons, there are some developers that still work for the satisfaction of creating something, check out Open Source Software , most has none of this type of funding system.
The question was asked why does this not happen with mac applications, the reason is simply one of commercial viability, the MAC market is so limited in size that it's not a good comercial proposition for the majority of developers to even write for it :)
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