Nero 14 and up Phone HOME too much

[jimbo45]

Hi there

I REALLY dislike this insidious habit of a lot of software "Surreptiously" Phoning home at random intervals -- Once I've PAID for my software and validated / activated it that should FINAL. Or if it really must regularly "Phone Home" then I want to know when it does each time.

It can be really annoying if you NEED the software and it has to check on the internet when you are somewhere without an internet connection for example in a hotel where the Wifi has broken etc.

I've gone back to an OLD NERO release - rel 9 which has infinitely LESS bloat in it and still works without phoning home.

I still use NERO with the Mega codecs plugin pack as I sometimes create Virtual / Physical Audio CD's from FLAC tracks. I sometimes burn on to a CD to play on a top end CD deck too -- a decent CD deck on a high end amplifier sounds far superior to your bog standard computer sound where speakers are optimised usually for gaming / films and the mixing facilities are primitive.

(I'm gradually switching over to Linux where software doesn't do these Nasty tricks on you -- I only still really need MS OFFICE - still by far the best office app out there, PHOTOSHOP, some CAD software, a SAP GUI and some video streaming based on Ms Silverlight and some old legacy hardware all of which all can run in a VM so Windows will soon only be on my desktop / laptop as a VM).

Cheers
jimbo

 

[oneeyed]

On windows I use InfraRecorder, which is a decent open-source alternative to nero.
I also hate this tendency to add bloat for nothing. Nero is a good example, but adobe reader is probably the main one. I've also turned to open-source software for pdfs too. With windows firewall I don't really notice anything calling home, everything but my browser is blocked.

 

[fireberd]

I use Nero Burning ROM. I have a (home) Recording Studio and I do Audio CD's, almost exclusively, and Nero Burning ROM allows putting the song title and artist name on each song. Many others do not have this capability. It also allows inserting the ISRC code which, again, many others do not. The other program that allows this info on Audio CD's is "Sony CD Architect" but it is double the cost of Nero and does not burn to multiple CD burners at the same time like Nero Burning ROM. I have a bank of 5 USB connected drives for CD burning production.

But, I agree Nero has become "bloatware" with all the other applications bundled with it. It is primarily marketed for Blu-Ray and DVD burning, which I don't need. I have 2011 and 2012 versions on two different PC's and won't be upgrading for the foreseeable future, as the BurningRom program serves my Audio CD production needs.