BORLOX  It's a problem because my computer belongs to me, not to a software developer. The Interlok rootkit modifies the whole operating system in ways completely unknown and unknowable to the user. The rootkit developer, PACE, isn't answerable to the end user and doesn't care about his interests.

From the PACE website:

Are there any known issues where machines spontaneously reboot or freeze when using PACE protected software?

... It should be noted that InterLok does have mechinisms whereby it can reboot the machine if it detects aberrant behavior that could be trying to compromise the security of the wrapped application.

http://paceantipiracy.com/ilqanda.html

So if Interlok thinks you might be trying to do something the application developer wouldn't approve of, it can shut down your whole system, destroying whatever you may be working on in the process. If it's acceptable to you to give that kind of control over your computer to someone you don't know or trust, fine. To me it isn't and never will be.  
(Version 5.3.4)

BORLOX  WARNING: Installs the Interlok DRM rootkit.  
(Version 5.3.3)

BORLOX  Anyone who uses this app should be aware that it tries to hide a timestamp in a preference file named "com.apple.services.plist", which is apparently supposed to look like a file created by the OS. It isn't.  
(Version 2.0)

BORLOX  To convert the man page with title 'fubar' to publication-quality PDF:

Open a Terminal window.

Enter "man -t fubar | open -a -f Preview" (without the quotes.)

Yes, it involves some text entry, but if you're reading man pages you need to do that anyway.

Besides ManOpen, another free alternative to be aware of is Bwana.  
(Version 2.0)

BORLOX  Just in case anyone is confused about what this does: it uploads your images to a remote server, apparently in Italy, where the processing takes place, and then downloads the results back to you.

I just checked the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy pages on the developer's site. Both are blank. Maybe you have to open an account to see that information. I have no idea what rights the developer considers himself to have to his customers' data.

I wouldn't use this product for anything serious without consult a lawyer first. An Italian lawyer.  
(Version 2.1.3)

BORLOX  I don't like to criticize a free application that many people apparently find useful, but deleting swap files? What's supposed to be the point of that? They're deleted automatically anyway at startup.  
(Version 1.5)

BORLOX  Promising, but doesn't yet deliver.

I tried to use this to back up my home directory to S3. I chose an encrypted compressed disk image as the archive type. It made a complete local copy of the source directory, including all the files I had excluded from backup, then stalled with the progress dialog showing "idle". No data was uploaded.

Also, I noticed that it can't create a new bucket if one already exists.

If the developer keeps working on it, this might be a useful app someday.  
(Version 1.0b11)

BORLOX  Am I the only one who thinks this is a bad idea?

Applications that don't need to access the network, shouldn't. The Mac OS is moving toward a sandbox security model in which applications can be selectively allowed access to kernel facilities such as I/O and networking. This framework conflicts with that model.

A security-conscious user should have an admin account that is used only for administrative tasks such as software installation. Only the apps that are required for those tasks should run in that account. All other work should be done in another account, without admin privileges. Sparkle conflicts with that model, too.

The one time I tried it, Sparkle installed an app bundle with wrong, wide open, permissions.

Unfortunately, more and more developers are included this waste of disk space in their products, and you can't remove it, because then the apps won't launch.  
(Version 1.5b4)

BORLOX  The installer package phones home without asking permission from the user. It also tries to cover its tracks.

When you run the installer, it installs, among a lot of other stuff you probably don't want, an application called "Pingie." Pingie is launched automatically by the postflight installer script, then deleted, so you never know it was there.

By runnings strings(1) on the executable in the Pingie.app bundle, you can see that it contacts a server at http://hints.netflame.cc/, which redirects to a Digital River marketing site. It sends, at least, the product version and your IP address.

The only reference to all this in the installation documents is in the middle of the legal boilerplate of the EULA:

"During the installation process and through use of the software covered hereunder, we may collect non-personally identifiable information, as well as personally-identifiable information, all as set forth in our Privacy Policy, available at http://www.divx.com/legal/privacy.php; please read it."

Read it indeed. And better yet, don't run the installer at all. Use Pacifist or some other tool to extract only the files you want from the package. In my case, that was only the QuickTime decoder component. I had no use for the player or any of the other questionable stuff in the package.  
(Version 6.7.2)

BORLOX  Excellent stuff. I've been using it for years. If you're running a public SSH server, you MUST install this. It's for advanced users -- a Python script, not a GUI application -- but it well repays the effort to learn how to set it up.

What it does is to watch a log file for unsuccessful attempts to connect to your SSH server. If there are too many attempts from a particular IP address, DenyHosts blocks all further SSH connections from that address. Optionally, it also connects to a central server and downloads the IP addresses of hosts that have attacked other users. Those hosts are then blocked too, usually before they ever attack you. Your attackers' addresses are also uploaded to the server. This creates a group-immunity effect.

It can also notify you by email when a host is blocked.  
(Version 2.6)

BORLOX  This piece of garbage prompts to start a root daemon every time it runs, even after you've told it not to, and after you cancel, it asks for an admin password anyway because it wants to write to a file in the application bundle.

Somehow, Real always manages to outdo itself by making each new version worse than the last one.  
(Version 11.0 build 876)

BORLOX  Appropriately, the screenshot is a threat of criminal prosecution.  
(Version 2.0.1447)

BORLOX  Another scam widget. This one passes domain-name queries through to the developer so he can register the names first and sell them back to the user.  
(Version 1.0.4)

BORLOX  A good example of the sort of widget to avoid. It provides no information you couldn't get just as easily from apple.com. All it does is direct queries to the developer's site so he can collect personal data for his own use.  
(Version 1.0.1)

BORLOX  Being based on MacFUSE, it only supports password authentication, which SSH servers exposed to the Internet shouldn't use.  
(Version 1.1)

BORLOX  It will only run if it has write access to the application bundle, which means you either have to run it in an admin account (if it's installed in the Applications folder), or you have to install it in your home directory, where it's only available to one user. Either option violates the UNIX security model.  
(Version 1.8)

BORLOX  I don't know what this guy is up to, but there is absolutely no reason for anybody to use this app or pay for it. It's just a disguised, defective wrapper for the DiskImages framework. The mysterious super-secret vaults it creates are merely obfuscated sparseimages, the same kind you can create for free using Disk Utility, or with cheaper, better third-party apps such as DropDMG. The only differences I can see are, first, that this app somehow manages to impose a spurious 10-GB limitation on the size of the image, and second, that the files can't be shared with anyone who doesn't also have this app installed. Well, actually they can, if the recipient goes to the trouble of extracting the sparseimage file from the bundle it's hidden in, but what's the point?  
(Version 1.1.4)

BORLOX  Firmware password protection can be bypassed by changing the RAM configuration. Its only use is to prevent rebooting something like a kiosk machine in single-user mode, where the box is physically locked up and only the keyboard and mouse are accessible. Otherwise it's worthless.

Physical security of data comes from encryption, not from being unable to boot the machine. If the developer wants to do something useful, he should try devising a two-factor authentication system like the SmartCard support already built into the Mac, but without the need for specialized hardware and media.  
(Version 1.2)

BORLOX  I don't like to criticize someone who contributes a free (as in beer) project, but it seems the developer is considering charging money for it. I've known 9-year-old children who could bypass this by booting in single-user mode. No one should install it with the idea that it provides any security against tampering by an attacker with physical access to the computer. There are ways to provide that kind of security, but this isn't one of them. I really can't see any point in this software at all.  
(Version 1.0)

BORLOX  This is the only usable product of its kind for the Mac. The only competition is the embarrassingly-named Little Snitch, which has such a broken security model that nobody should use it.

The important difference between GW and LS is that unprivileged users can use GW without being given control over other users' processes. The firewall rules are set by the system administrator, but they apply to all users. With LS, the foreground user can allow or deny access to the network for any process running as any user. Even if you're the only user of your machine, that's a huge security hole, because it means that any application you run could potentially open the firewall without your knowledge. LS supposedly takes some precautions against this, but the model is fundamentally bad.

The GW interface isn't beautiful, but it's adequate. The menu bar item has crashed on me once. Otherwise no problems with stability.

The Mac platform needs the functionality that this application provides. Users who are conscious of privacy and security should support the developer.  
(Version 1.5.3b2)