putty.org is not run by the PuTTY developers

https://hachyderm.io/@simontatham/114846017785770922

by LeoPanthera • 1 year ago

39 25 1 year ago

luka598• 1 year ago

On July 13, 2025, Bitvise was contacted by a political interrogator posing as a journalist. https://putty.org/20250713-MiraiF-Emails.txt

arp242• 1 year ago

If I tried to be obnoxious and got paid for it, I would still be less obnoxious than that asshole.

Looking at their website, "denis bider" is not just "support" but the main person beyond Bitvise, FYI. He also seems to think that "Biological viruses are made up. Virology is a fake field of study. [..] Virology, like journalism, is where an entire field is fraudulent".[1] When you're so triggered having to wear a mask for public safety you just start dismissing entire fields of science that don't fit your ideology and offend you ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's no surprise the reasoning in that email is so bizarre and barely connects to the actual question. It's just this person's personality.

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20250417152336/https://blog.deni...

ghusto3• 1 year ago

I went and read the e-mail thread and had to check back to your comment twice, because I thought my tired mind was mixing things up. You're suggesting _Bider_ is the obnoxious one?!

hkon• 1 year ago

Seems like a correct assertion.

whywhywhywhy2• 1 year ago

The PuTTY website is https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ and it always has been

I have sympathy about the domain squatting but at this point you're making it easy for them when that's your official url.

ta12432• 1 year ago

There's about 3 search engines covering 99% of the traffic, and 1 search engine covering 95%.

I'm sure in the past chiark was top. Given how popular putty at least was, for windows users, surely those search enginers should be able to override

I guess the main one gets money when someone visits putty.org though, so maybe that's it.

rich_sasha• 1 year ago

If I used my Internet sniff test and was asked which of these two URLs is genuine, Of go for the putty.org one.

I'd maybe hesitate more if the legit address was clearly associated with a university (.edu or other hallmarks) but not even that.

1122332• 1 year ago

"Nice business you have here, it would be real shame if something happened to it. If you don't pay up now, will it not be your fault when something happens? Think about all those people who come here."

general1726• 1 year ago

That's what trademark is for. Nice domain you have here, it would be shame if somebody would yoink it from your registrar based on trademark infringement.

whywhywhywhy2• 1 year ago

It's more of a maybe pay for a security shutter on your business because your business is based somewhere with crime.

ghusto3• 1 year ago

Please do not perpetuate the claim that putty.org is the PuTTY website.

Ah, okay I'll be vigilant. What is it then, something like putty.com? ...

The PuTTY website is https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ and it always has been.

... ah, I think I see the problem ...

Apreche• 1 year ago

Once WSL and Windows Terminal came into existence, I found no more reason to use PuTTY.

mingus88• 1 year ago

Putty was once indispensable for me, too.

The era of which also coincides with the era when browsing to long URLs to university domains with tildes and usernames was commonplace

At any rate, I similarly don’t have any utility for this bitvise client either and it’s very scummy behavior and textbook trademark infringement to confuse the user by using the putty name to promote a competitor, even with that weak disclaimer

Yizahi• 1 year ago

Unfortunately WSL and Terminal have high friction cost, even despite being made by the same company as OS. So if you have a new VM (or 10, or god forbid 100+) you likely wouldn't either of those installed by default. Though I'm not familiar with recent packaging of Windows. On my current setup I had to install Terminal and WSL from the MS Store, which is extremely slow, buggy (sometimes halts updates of random programs) and I suspect won't work without account at all.

So in that situation it is ten times faster and easier to just download Putty and immediately start working.

sshine4• 1 year ago

An interesting email conversation released yesterday (2025-07-13) on putty.org about the matter:

https://www.putty.org/20250713-MiraiF-Emails.txt

sshine4• 1 year ago

putty.org has been owned by the same person for 25 years, and has functioned as an unofficial download page forwarder since at least 20 years ago.

He's forwarding to Simon Tatham's page and always have; he's not providing mirrored executables.

The domain owner knows what people are coming for, and has forwarded to the right page for more than two decades.

I see that it may be a cause for concern because of our consciousness about software supply chains we have today.

But the domain owner of putty.org provides his own unorthodox but reliable service to the online community.

On the other hand, putty.net is just for sale. Which application is more moral here?

mnmalst3• 1 year ago

Selling a commercial product by using the name of a popular open source tool is definitely not "more moral".

sshine4• 1 year ago

Let's call it "advertise his own product", since he gives the software away for free and hardly makes money on licenses.

I would say that it is.

He is freeriding on the PuTTY brand name to popularise his own SSH client.

It definitely has an element of being questionable. It won't win him the Nobel Peace Prize.

But it isn't even a "dark pattern": He's not tricking anyone to make the wrong choice.

He has provided a clear and unambiguous download path to the original PuTTY for two decades.

Which of doing that and selling a domain to the highest bidder has had more value to PuTTY?

I remember using the putty.org domain 20 years ago when I was still a Windows user, and remembering "I know this isn't the official site, but he forwards to the real distribution page, so there's no risk." And it never was any different.

I find it a little incredible that the moral police comes around decades later, when I remember one sentiment back then was "Wow, he's making the effort to make PuTTY more reachable, what a nice guy."

putty.org is not run by the PuTTY developers

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