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376

FBI warnings are true—fake file converters do push malware (www.bleepingcomputer.com)

submitted 3 months ago by RegularJoe@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[+] Ulrich@feddit.org -11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Handbrake has a GUI, and it's relatively straightforward to use

I downloaded it and it immediately did not work so I'm gonna have to disagree with you there, champ.

You can also use ffmpeg on the CLI like so:

I've lost far too many hours to the CLI. I don't fall for that trick anymore.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You do you, I guess. Those are incredibly simple commands I provided, and you can intuit pretty easily how to tweak them for other formats.

I guess it's up to you. You can gamble with random services online, or you can spend a few minutes and learn to use a tool that's all but guaranteed to not have malware.

[+] Ulrich@feddit.org -11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

or you can spend a few minutes

This is just a fucking lie and I'm tired of hearing it. What did I just say?

I've lost far too many hours to the CLI.

I've tried to learn this shit. It's a fucking rabbit hole. I type these commands, letter for letter, the terminal returns some completely useless error that provides me with no diagnostic information whatsoever, I spend hours searching and trying to understand why and come up empty-handed. I don't have time for that anymore. I already have multiple jobs. It's not how I prefer to spend my free time. And frankly, I don't believe it anymore when software engineers feed me this bullshit.

You know what those web services do? I just click a button and it does what the button says. Why is that so hard?

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You know what those web services do? I just click a button and it does what the button says. Why is that so hard?

There's also a pretty big chance that they'll do more than what the button says, like inject malware. That's the whole point of the article.

[+] Ulrich@feddit.org -7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I understand that but that's beside the point. It does what they advertise. It's incredibly simple and easy to use. Why can no one make something comparable that's FOSS?

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They did, it's often a CLI interface because it's incredibly flexible. ffmpeg and imagemagick are quite easy for basic things.

Building a cross-platform GUI is a pain, and hosting a website costs money. Building a cross-platform CLI is incredibly easy, which is why it's so popular.

Some of these tools have GUI frontends or alternatives, some don't. The more niche you go, the harder it'll be to find a reasonable GUI, and I consider PDF to JPEG pretty niche.