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Ad Muncher's 15 Year History!

Asked by gate1975mlm,

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gate1975mlm

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This is the story of a 14 year old coder, who raised $100 from his father to launch an ad blocking program, then dedicated the next 15 years of his life to it.

It's my story, and this post will be followed by another giving the first ever preview of Ad Muncher Version 5, and another one with an important announcement about the future of Ad Muncher.

 

http://www.murrayhurps.com/blog/ad-muncher-history

 

post-36069-0-86374700-1403621164.jpg

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max22

Posted
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Ad muncher is now free! http://www.murrayhurps.com/blog/ad-muncher-announcement

 

Now it really will be the best ad blocker in the world! I hope this means free for android, iOS, Linux (when it comes) and mac (when it comes) too!

 

We will see a lot of people switch back now. hehe

  • bigmehdi and gate1975mlm
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darkrats

Posted
Posted

Does anyone know for sure that this is not a hoax of some kind. There are a number of sites reporting this, but the Official site still has the option to purchase, and in the Official forum there is no comment by the creators. Anyone care to prove that AM has gone free by posting a link to the free version (not the shareware)? After years of lackluster communication from AM's creators, it doesn't seem too likely that AM, now or version 5 (if it ever is released) will be free.

 

It's a nice program but highly overpriced. The creators of AM would probably do just as well by asking for donations.

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Grand Master

TAZMINATOR

Posted
Posted

Does anyone know for sure that this is not a hoax of some kind. There are a number of sites reporting this, but the Official site still has the option to purchase, and in the Official forum there is no comment by the creators. Anyone care to prove that AM has gone free by posting a link to the free version (not the shareware)? After years of lackluster communication from AM's creators, it doesn't seem too likely that AM, now or version 5 (if it ever is released) will be free.

 

It's a nice program but highly overpriced. The creators of AM would probably do just as well by asking for donations.

 

 

If you already used AM app shareware, just wait until you get the update that will replace it with freeware. Otherwise you can install freeware app if they put freeware app on their site.

 

And it's not hoax. The app creator announced it himself and some of us got the email from him.

 

That is my guess about update to replace.. I could be wrong.

 

Give it sometime before the app comes online and change their website.

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Ace

Posted
Posted

the official site still has the option to purchase

 

Err...

 

 

"We're currently rebuilding our infrastructure to handle the volume of users we're expecting in the free version.

 

To be notified once the new version is online, please enter your email address below."

 

http://www.murrayhurps.com/blog/ad-muncher-announcement

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BooBerry

Posted
Posted

Ad muncher is now free! http://www.murrayhurps.com/blog/ad-muncher-announcement

 

Now it really will be the best ad blocker in the world! I hope this means free for android, iOS, Linux (when it comes) and mac (when it comes) too!

 

We will see a lot of people switch back now. hehe

 

 

would love a linux version

great app & will be happy to see it grow more

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Grand Master

Rigby

Posted
Posted

Why is the cow sad? Doesn't it want to be free? :(

 

I've used this program for almost ten years, it has always been a great ad blocker though it is showing its age now with its lack of https support. I've been waiting for version 5 for years now and I've about given up on it. AdGuard is a nice alternative and much more up to date but it costs $50 for a lifetime license.

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bigmehdi

Posted
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I agree with the page mentioned by max22 , when they say "the anti-piracy rubbish".

I didn't like these check of ip, while precisely the pirate user didn't have to bother with this.

Also there's the free adblocker addon from firefox as an alternative, so I'm not surprised if ad muncher became free after some time.

And last remark, I always wondered how a product that block ads would advertise itself.

People that are getting some money from adsense (or any other advertising solution) are off course not interested in talking about ad muncher.

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streetw0lf

Posted
Posted

So AM is still cash strapped, has to pay salaries for three people, and now the program is free.  Folks, IMO this is one of those too good to be true things.  My take on it is it's the death knell for AM.  After all, how can you now bitch about version 5 taking 6 years when it is now free?  Better off switching to AdGuard.  They deliver on their promises.

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darkrats

Posted
Posted

The two links (above) don't lead to anything significant that I can see. The pages look like they were put together in a couple of minutes. The PDFs available just show a half-finished product. As much as I'd like to think that AM is going free, I am going to have to see something more concrete than what's available so far. Murray Hurps (if that is his real name) doesn't have a lot of credibility, not even in the Ad Muncher user community. Users have been ignored and misled for many years, so I guess I'll believe it when I see it. Don't know the man personally, but he has generated a lot of bad feelings with AM users, and many have moved on to other products rather than wait for a free version or a new version 5. I could be worng about this, but I've left my email with him for notifications, and we'll see what happens.

 

Nothing wrong with the product itself. It does a good job for everything from popups to advertisements (although not on https sites). I would not hesitate to recommend it.

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Grand Master

Boo Berry

Posted
Posted

So AM is still cash strapped, has to pay salaries for three people, and now the program is free.  Folks, IMO this is one of those too good to be true things.  My take on it is it's the death knell for AM.  After all, how can you now bitch about version 5 taking 6 years when it is now free?  Better off switching to AdGuard.  They deliver on their promises.

I couldn't agree more.

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max22

Posted
Posted

Does anyone know for sure that this is not a hoax of some kind. There are a number of sites reporting this, but the Official site still has the option to purchase, and in the Official forum there is no comment by the creators. Anyone care to prove that AM has gone free by posting a link to the free version (not the shareware)? After years of lackluster communication from AM's creators, it doesn't seem too likely that AM, now or version 5 (if it ever is released) will be free.

 

It's a nice program but highly overpriced. The creators of AM would probably do just as well by asking for donations.

 

I disagree I have 3 unlimited lifetime licenses and they are well worth it.

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Grand Master

+LogicalApex MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

This definitely doesn't make sense. If the software is actually free without a solid monetization story it can only mean bad things.

Either they will be putting in ads or worse or it is going under.

Business is not a charity and the post read as if it is.

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max22

Posted
Posted

This definitely doesn't make sense. If the software is actually free without a solid monetization story it can only mean bad things.

Either they will be putting in ads or worse or it is going under.

Business is not a charity and the post read as if it is.

 

We still don't know if the Android and iOS version will be free or not.

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Community Regular

darkrats

Posted
Posted

Almost every software site and forum I regularly check out has the headline "Ad Muncher is Now Free". So far, this is not true. The AM website is still asking for money, so the creators have yet to weigh in on this with any kind of confirmation or download link to the "free" version. Not sure why these software sites and forums would continue to announce that AM is free, without any solid evidence is a puzzler. Maybe everyone is just so excited over the possibility of a free version that they haven't noticed that Murray hasn't taken down his "payware" website. Does this mean he's still accepting hundreds of dollars for licences, knowing that in a few days the product will be free? Seems strange to me.

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Rising Star

Top Qat

Posted
Posted

I paid for AM a long time ago.

 

We had a very interesting* email conversation about how AM was written in pure assembler (HLASM) and his plans to rewrite the whole lot in C.

Nice chap, clever programmer.

 

 

 

 

*it was interesting to me, I have been a programmer for over 30 years now

  • 0
Grand Master

+InsaneNutter MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

Strange he tried and failed to sell his company twice, so has now plans to give away the only product making any money for free.

 

Maybe the idea is to get people talking then sell AdMuncher on Android / IOS, building up a large mobile user base quickly. Then again i doubt this would stay in the Google Play Store, other ad blockers have long since been removed.

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night_stalker_z

Posted
Posted

This definitely doesn't make sense. If the software is actually free without a solid monetization story it can only mean bad things.

Either they will be putting in ads or worse or it is going under.

Business is not a charity and the post read as if it is.

 

He said he might be putting in sponsored products later on: http://www.murrayhurps.com/blog/ad-muncher-announcement

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Boo Berry

Posted
Posted

He said he might be putting in sponsored products later on: http://www.murrayhurps.com/blog/ad-muncher-announcement

I have a feeling this may alienate some users. When I saw this...

 

This will be financially difficult for me.  Salaries for three people, along with our usual expenses, will be covered entirely by myself by selling almost everything I have, and taking on some external work.

I thought this was NOT a wise move. Why risk everything in this case? Doesn't make sense at all.

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Night Prowler

Posted
Posted

What bothers me and makes me very skeptical is that they are making users sign up for multiple mailing list as he progress's through these release announcements (so far three mailing list, what's with that...).

 

Now they are delaying the release to build up their infrastructure, really, and they had no time to do this until after their announcements.

 

Six years has past, and us paid users have seen no coding updated. Murray dropped of the planet for a number of those years.

 

They actually stopped coding because there was an offer on the table to buy them out, really. IMO; if AdMuncher was sold it would be buried is some dark forest to never be heard of again, and the AdMuncher legacy would be dust.

 

I did switch to AdGuard, because I couldn't get any support for AdMuncher after buying the unlimited version. AdGuard is not free, but it certainly does what it is supposed to do, and they haven't left their users in the dark for six years.

 

IMHO you pay for what you get. My daddy always said, nothing is free, unless that is all it's worth.

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