Interesting idea about signing of the downloaders. Both Amazon downloaders are signed, but that does not stop the infrequently-downloaded warning from Internet Explorer. (The OpenOffice downloader did not trigger that warning, but the generic downloader that works with the Amazon Games and Software Library did!)
Of course, running the downloaded OpenOffice.exe is going to raise all of the usual non-browser warnings. -----Original Message----- From: Rob Weir [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2012 23:50 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Amazon Download of Apache OpenOffice 3.4 On Sat, Sep 15, 2012 at 3:45 PM, Dennis E. Hamilton <[email protected]> wrote: [ ... ] > 6. Amazon has a Games and Software Library for users. This can be used to > re-download the software and also get product keys (not applicable for this > one). Out of curiosity, I followed that link and found that they are still > holding tax-return software for the US 2008 tax year that I purchased and > downloaded in 2009. Now the Apache OpenOffice 3.4 is there now too. > > 7. Amazon has their own downloader. It is needed to retrieve software from > the Games and Software Library. I didn't install that, although it is needed > to download from the library. > > 8. Going through the one-click purchase of the $0.00 software, I was not > sent the executable. Instead, I was sent an "Amazon OpenOffice 34 by Apache" > downloader executable. I ran it. It is a simple dialog with a progress bar, > the gull button, and a message that the item can be downloaded again from my > software library. It downloads the software. It doesn't say where. [ ... ] My guess is they required a signed exe for the initial download. Since Apache does not provide one, Amazon's workaround was via this downloader app. I'd bet that this hack was to get around browser warnings about unsigned code. [ ... ]
