I was just checking out my games list...and I saw Fallout installer updated to 2.0.0...so I thought "yes! update for the best game ever! what could it be?!"
...but to my surprise, what I saw was not just a new installer, but "adware" with it (Foxit Reader).
Is that really necessary? Not to mention I already have Adobe Reader installed anyway.
My old Fallout worked just fine without any additional installation required, why does the new installer need to have 3rd party software with it? I mean it's freeware, but why is it bundled? If it's a "download if selected" I'd be somewhat ok with it, but still...this is not a freeware game or anything, why bundle that stuff...cant it just be a link or something in the game page in My Games list?

I've been away from gaming for a while, but I don't recall any news from GoG about them starting to do that...did I miss something here?

It was an optional component, wasn't it?

It is there so those who don't already have a PDF reader installed will still be able to read the game manual. Whether people like that actually exist or not, I do not know.

I think you have to uncheck it, though, so even if it's optional if you don't know to change the options you get it automatically.

I'd say you did, yes. It was always like that. The game installers have always checked to see if your machine had a default program registered for PDF files, and offered to install a PDF reader otherwise. Usually Foxit, but I believe a few others have been used as well. The reason is that the game manuals are in PDF format.

I asked about this earlier and it must be only for specific games. I've installed about 30 different games from GOG's catalogue and no one asked me about any PDF-reader. Note: none of them had 2.0.

P.S Sumatra is faster than Foxit. ;-)

Probably because .pdf is already associated with a program on your system. The 1.0 installers won't ask then iirc.

95% of the 2.0 installers include Foxit as an optional install. You don't have to install it, why is it such a big deal?

I know what he means though. It can come across like having to uncheck macafee and the yahoo toolbar from everything. Annoying and pointless. If he finds that he wants a pdf reader he is fully capable of getting one on his own.
hadn't noticed it defaulted to checked myself...guess i'l have to look out for that in the future when downloading 2.0 installers
edit- ah thats why i don't see it i have adobe so it doesn't appear

It does come across as adware but if it's optional, no advertising in Foxit and free it doesn't really bother me.

I was glad the installer gave me the option to have Foxit actually.

I generally don't care for Adobe stuff, so I didn't bother having a PDF reader on my desktop before I installed a few games on it. Seeing that on there made me go "Oh nice, saves me the trouble."

As long as it doesn't require it I don't see any harm. Also it's not like any McAfee or browser toolbar garbage as those are things that actively get in the way of your day to day activities on your machine.

I thought it was unchecked and you'd have to select it if you really want it. I'd see no problem with that. But if it's actually selected by default I'd agree that it's a bad thing, it should be the other way around. You should get the option to install it if you're one of the few who needs it, not the option to opt out of a generally unnecessary installation.

My operating system supports PDF out of the box, but every time I want to run the GoG installer in Wine the Foxit reader box is checked by default. I don't think any software that's not needed to run the application should be checked by default, even if there appears nothing similar to be installed on the system. I understand that GoG want's to have a solution where you don't need to worry about technical details, but PDF is such a common format these days, everyone has at least Adobe Reader installed.

I don't know why people have this problem. I never had anything extra installed by GOG installer. It always checked if I have PDF reader installed and I never had to uncheck anything.

They really should have it off by default. I noticed it at some point as well and it's no more wanted than the Yahoo Toolbar stuff etc mentioned above. PDF manuals are extremely common, yet GOG seems to be the only one thinking it's users need some automatic help with that.

I'm sure they see it as a 'feature' or something, but having something auto-install when you think you're installing a game is just annoying. (when forgetting to untag it)

I undestand and fully approve GOG's policy to make games ready to play out of the box. Same goes with game goodies.

I have PDF reader intalled and GOG installers never automatically installed it over my actual program.

Dunno how they are doing the check, but it failed the last time I tried to install a GOG on Windows 8. It didn't detect that I already have a WinRT application called Reader installed, which reads PDF and XPS files.

As a suggestion, they could easily provide XPS files to Vista+ users considering that the OSes have XPS reader built in (for the customers that don't want to deal with PDFs).