This article was nominated for deletion on 2 February 2010 (UTC). The result of the discussion was keep. |
This article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
I think the program is uncomprehendable if you don't take multiple days to learn about the subject first.
Except from that, take a look at these lines:
If you create a hidden volume within an existing volume, be warned: mounting and adding data to the "host" volume may result in the "hidden" volume being overwritten, and its data destroyed.
When creating a hidden volume within an existing volume, ensure that the offset you specify is large enough such that it does not overwrite any of the system areas of that host volume (e.g. the FAT)
I hardly know what they mean, but would I trust my data to a program that apparently can overwrite it?
I thought it to be a simple window that scambles/unscambles data. Something like WinZip, but simpler. It is not. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Svenpb ( talk • contribs).
I have set the "advert" category. The reader is directly addressed as user of the software. The article is full of praise and provides hardly more than feature lists. I am willing to believe that OTFE is a great piece of software, but Wikipedia is not the place to judge this.
-- 217.226.114.245 ( talk) 20:08, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
Please see the licence of FreeOTFE and the Open Source Definition §8. This thing is not compatible to the OSD, though the source code is available. The next issue: The project itself doesn't use it for the software. In each and every file there's just a copyright notice and there in no COPYING or LICENCE file in the whole tarball. But even if that would be the case, the best thing is the 4th point of the licence: If someone reuses reused code, it wouldn't be necessary to make your code available to the public, because only "Any software derived from any part of FreeOTFE or FreeOTFE4PDA and/or its source code must be released into the public domain with full source code." And who is I anyway? This is the most stupid thing I've ever read so far that claims to be a licence.
Because of that, I change the licence to "copyright" and remove all things in the article that would tell the reader that this is Free or Open Source Software. If someone has another point of view, I would be glad to hear about it. -- 88.70.172.83 ( talk) 13:41, 15 December 2008 (UTC) write me here
Clearly it is free software, that's patently obvious. As to it being "copyright" - all opensource software is copyright. If the author didn't own copyright to it, they couldn't licence it in the first place. Besides, looking at the licence, it's pretty clear that if anything, the licence is less restrictive than opensource - it makes any source code changes to it into the public domain. Looking at the source code files, it states "By Sarah Dean", and gives contact details, which seems fair enough. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.30.249.131 ( talk) 19:09, 15 December 2008 (UTC)
Exactly, looking at teh source code it states Sarah Dean and nothing more or less. Actually there ist no licence for the software itself, it is copyright ONLY. The other things, well you don't know how restictive open source is, do you? Open source is a mark and a definition and this one doesn't meet the definition, because it is product specific. Please read the definition, than you know what I meant. -- 88.70.172.83 ( talk) 22:19, 15 December 2008 (UTC)
It seems like the license has changed and now looks OSD compliant to me. It's a pity the author decided to create another "vanity license" instead of choosing a already approved one. IANAL, but section 4.1.2 looks a little bit problematic as only claims against the Original Author void the license. So I can happily sue anyone that made modifications... Yoghurt ( talk) 01:12, 5 January 2009 (UTC)
I have checked and stalked everywhere, EVERYWHERE, for the past 2 years to contact the author for some suggestions and possible help for signing drivers, which would make this software far more usable and valuable.
Although this is irrelevant to Wikipedia, what is relevant is the whereabouts of the author, and whether or not this one-of-a-kind project can be considered abandoned while in a state of custom license. I thought maybe I could read something in this article about Sarah Dean, but no.
All mailboxes are permanently full, causing bounces. Source Forge messaging is disabled. Questions on stack exchange get removed. Anyone got any clue to get more information about this?
Redsandro ( talk) 18:30, 31 March 2013 (UTC)
To Redsandro's point, if the project is defunct or the lead-developer has passed it on, that would be good info to add. I was looking for this also.
@Redsandro Have you tried these?
@all, the freeotfe.org site was down due to non-payment. I donated some money to the host provider and ask them in return to put the site back up for a period of 2 weeks so mirrors can be made. The site is currently up and will go down again on the 05/27/2013. I plan to make a copy of the website and put it up. All efforts to contact the author wasn't successful and at this point, there is a chance that the original author might have deceased. O1001010 ( talk) 15:34, 13 May 2013 (UTC)
@anonymous I tried contacting every direct email address on that page. So far I have received bounces from David Saunders, Brian R. Gladman, Peter Thörnqvist, Alexander Okorokov and Brian Smith. There are two addresses left that didn't bounce. Let's hope those mailboxes are still being watched. Redsandro ( talk) 21:48, 28 May 2013 (UTC)
@all, @Plastic rat
Sorry about the huge delay.
About 2 years ago I found the site was down. But the domain name was still up and the hosting company just disabled the site due to non-payment. The hosting company was some company in Singapore. I presented the case and they refused to give me the direct site files. However, after I made a donation to them, they agree to unsuspend the FreeOTFE and Sdean site for 30 days. So I used HTTPTrack and download all the sites and files that the crawler was able to find.
I happen to be a big fan of the software as the program allowed security without installing files. I am not sure what I should do with the original files and source codes, but I am thinking some sort of memorial should be set up for SDean and FreeOTFE, and all the files putted back online.
O1001010 (
talk) 05:21, 1 April 2015 (UTC)
″but I am thinking some sort of memorial should be set up for SDean and FreeOTFE, and all the files putted back online.″
That is an excellent idea. I found the software very useful despite having to turn Win7 test Mode on. I could use a smart card Dell keyboard with card for keys. Managed to keep it limping along till very recently when (I assume) some Windows update or another made FreeOTFE stop working. Now every time I try to run it the window comes up then immediately I get the 'FreeOTFE has stopped working' windows error. Now I have volumes I cant access. Tried on other machines too, just bit-rot I suppose.
I would LOVE it if someone with coding ability could look at the source and maintain it. Windows 10 might be a stretch but proper Win7 x64 support would be fantastic. Lots of the sort of people who use FreeOTFE type software are still using Win7 and will continue to do so. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 148.252.128.115 ( talk) 21:13, 6 July 2018 (UTC)
FreeOTFE has been working for me on Windows 10 Pro Build 17763 release 180914 and all prior releases back to Widows 7, the only condition being to set to run in 'test mode'. Have only used it with files encrypted into a one file which when opened, displays as a lettered volume. Tngrlkrz ( talk) 13:49, 6 January 2020 (UTC)
What with whats happening with Truecrypt I suspect this would be an amazing time for Sarah Dean to reappear and update FreeOTFE. If she didnt want to work for free Im sure it could be crowdsourced... Sarah, if you're out there, PLEASE come back!
Can someone please update this article to add a reference to DoxBox ( https://t-d-k.github.io/doxbox/ ) which is a relaunch of FreeOTFE. I am the maintainer of DoxBox. Squte ( talk) 23:25, 30 August 2014 (UTC)
This article was nominated for deletion on 2 February 2010 (UTC). The result of the discussion was keep. |
This article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
I think the program is uncomprehendable if you don't take multiple days to learn about the subject first.
Except from that, take a look at these lines:
If you create a hidden volume within an existing volume, be warned: mounting and adding data to the "host" volume may result in the "hidden" volume being overwritten, and its data destroyed.
When creating a hidden volume within an existing volume, ensure that the offset you specify is large enough such that it does not overwrite any of the system areas of that host volume (e.g. the FAT)
I hardly know what they mean, but would I trust my data to a program that apparently can overwrite it?
I thought it to be a simple window that scambles/unscambles data. Something like WinZip, but simpler. It is not. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Svenpb ( talk • contribs).
I have set the "advert" category. The reader is directly addressed as user of the software. The article is full of praise and provides hardly more than feature lists. I am willing to believe that OTFE is a great piece of software, but Wikipedia is not the place to judge this.
-- 217.226.114.245 ( talk) 20:08, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
Please see the licence of FreeOTFE and the Open Source Definition §8. This thing is not compatible to the OSD, though the source code is available. The next issue: The project itself doesn't use it for the software. In each and every file there's just a copyright notice and there in no COPYING or LICENCE file in the whole tarball. But even if that would be the case, the best thing is the 4th point of the licence: If someone reuses reused code, it wouldn't be necessary to make your code available to the public, because only "Any software derived from any part of FreeOTFE or FreeOTFE4PDA and/or its source code must be released into the public domain with full source code." And who is I anyway? This is the most stupid thing I've ever read so far that claims to be a licence.
Because of that, I change the licence to "copyright" and remove all things in the article that would tell the reader that this is Free or Open Source Software. If someone has another point of view, I would be glad to hear about it. -- 88.70.172.83 ( talk) 13:41, 15 December 2008 (UTC) write me here
Clearly it is free software, that's patently obvious. As to it being "copyright" - all opensource software is copyright. If the author didn't own copyright to it, they couldn't licence it in the first place. Besides, looking at the licence, it's pretty clear that if anything, the licence is less restrictive than opensource - it makes any source code changes to it into the public domain. Looking at the source code files, it states "By Sarah Dean", and gives contact details, which seems fair enough. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.30.249.131 ( talk) 19:09, 15 December 2008 (UTC)
Exactly, looking at teh source code it states Sarah Dean and nothing more or less. Actually there ist no licence for the software itself, it is copyright ONLY. The other things, well you don't know how restictive open source is, do you? Open source is a mark and a definition and this one doesn't meet the definition, because it is product specific. Please read the definition, than you know what I meant. -- 88.70.172.83 ( talk) 22:19, 15 December 2008 (UTC)
It seems like the license has changed and now looks OSD compliant to me. It's a pity the author decided to create another "vanity license" instead of choosing a already approved one. IANAL, but section 4.1.2 looks a little bit problematic as only claims against the Original Author void the license. So I can happily sue anyone that made modifications... Yoghurt ( talk) 01:12, 5 January 2009 (UTC)
I have checked and stalked everywhere, EVERYWHERE, for the past 2 years to contact the author for some suggestions and possible help for signing drivers, which would make this software far more usable and valuable.
Although this is irrelevant to Wikipedia, what is relevant is the whereabouts of the author, and whether or not this one-of-a-kind project can be considered abandoned while in a state of custom license. I thought maybe I could read something in this article about Sarah Dean, but no.
All mailboxes are permanently full, causing bounces. Source Forge messaging is disabled. Questions on stack exchange get removed. Anyone got any clue to get more information about this?
Redsandro ( talk) 18:30, 31 March 2013 (UTC)
To Redsandro's point, if the project is defunct or the lead-developer has passed it on, that would be good info to add. I was looking for this also.
@Redsandro Have you tried these?
@all, the freeotfe.org site was down due to non-payment. I donated some money to the host provider and ask them in return to put the site back up for a period of 2 weeks so mirrors can be made. The site is currently up and will go down again on the 05/27/2013. I plan to make a copy of the website and put it up. All efforts to contact the author wasn't successful and at this point, there is a chance that the original author might have deceased. O1001010 ( talk) 15:34, 13 May 2013 (UTC)
@anonymous I tried contacting every direct email address on that page. So far I have received bounces from David Saunders, Brian R. Gladman, Peter Thörnqvist, Alexander Okorokov and Brian Smith. There are two addresses left that didn't bounce. Let's hope those mailboxes are still being watched. Redsandro ( talk) 21:48, 28 May 2013 (UTC)
@all, @Plastic rat
Sorry about the huge delay.
About 2 years ago I found the site was down. But the domain name was still up and the hosting company just disabled the site due to non-payment. The hosting company was some company in Singapore. I presented the case and they refused to give me the direct site files. However, after I made a donation to them, they agree to unsuspend the FreeOTFE and Sdean site for 30 days. So I used HTTPTrack and download all the sites and files that the crawler was able to find.
I happen to be a big fan of the software as the program allowed security without installing files. I am not sure what I should do with the original files and source codes, but I am thinking some sort of memorial should be set up for SDean and FreeOTFE, and all the files putted back online.
O1001010 (
talk) 05:21, 1 April 2015 (UTC)
″but I am thinking some sort of memorial should be set up for SDean and FreeOTFE, and all the files putted back online.″
That is an excellent idea. I found the software very useful despite having to turn Win7 test Mode on. I could use a smart card Dell keyboard with card for keys. Managed to keep it limping along till very recently when (I assume) some Windows update or another made FreeOTFE stop working. Now every time I try to run it the window comes up then immediately I get the 'FreeOTFE has stopped working' windows error. Now I have volumes I cant access. Tried on other machines too, just bit-rot I suppose.
I would LOVE it if someone with coding ability could look at the source and maintain it. Windows 10 might be a stretch but proper Win7 x64 support would be fantastic. Lots of the sort of people who use FreeOTFE type software are still using Win7 and will continue to do so. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 148.252.128.115 ( talk) 21:13, 6 July 2018 (UTC)
FreeOTFE has been working for me on Windows 10 Pro Build 17763 release 180914 and all prior releases back to Widows 7, the only condition being to set to run in 'test mode'. Have only used it with files encrypted into a one file which when opened, displays as a lettered volume. Tngrlkrz ( talk) 13:49, 6 January 2020 (UTC)
What with whats happening with Truecrypt I suspect this would be an amazing time for Sarah Dean to reappear and update FreeOTFE. If she didnt want to work for free Im sure it could be crowdsourced... Sarah, if you're out there, PLEASE come back!
Can someone please update this article to add a reference to DoxBox ( https://t-d-k.github.io/doxbox/ ) which is a relaunch of FreeOTFE. I am the maintainer of DoxBox. Squte ( talk) 23:25, 30 August 2014 (UTC)