Flappy Bird's ANIMATED CORPSE may spread malware PLAGUE Cybercrooks have been quick to latch onto the hype about Flappy Bird's demise by laying a variety of malware-based traps. Counterfeit Flappy Bird Android apps packing malware have been spotted all over the web, with sightings by both Trend Micro and Sophos, among others. Trend warns that counterfeit copies of the mobile game …
Walled gardens keep out the obvious problems but not the more determined crook who will climb the wall.
The problem is every solution to malware ends up destroying further the hobbyist market and making computers a pain in the backside.
Eventually we could end up with a situation where every person needs a licence and a key which they sign their work with. If you break the law you get your key invalidated for life, so you can't ever write software and share it.
"The problem is every solution to malware ends up destroying further the hobbyist market "
Console yourself that you have at least gained some empathy with those hobbyists stranded when the hobby electronics market collapsed almost overnight in the advent of cheap computers that finally worked almost reliably.
Before you say "but, Maplins..." what Maplins offers today is nowhere near the stuff it used to push in the early 80s, when I built a whole bank of digital percussion effects from kits they offered (and by "kits" I mean a bag of components, a circuit board a project case and a self adhesive fascia panel, not a couple of pre-built circuit boards which need connecting with a pre-made ribbon cable).
I was kind of hoping that part of the Pi fallout would be a resurgence of interest in breadboarding and melting lead, but it doesn't seem to be happening.
Oh well.
"So does a Walled Garden approach look any better now?"
That was a silly comment. iPhones are just as capable of installing non-app store apps, as 'droid phones are, and "kosher" apps are still vulnerable to attack, as keeps being proven:
http://www.macworld.com/article/2037099/ios-app-contains-potential-malware.html
So to answer your question, no.
Easy to say, but without knowing what the actual cause(s) of him taking down the game were I don't know how realistic it is.
Nguyen has been reported as saying, what was meant to be a game of fun, became a highly addictive product which was giving him concern and sleepless nights.
I doubt leaving it up and giving its revenue to charity would have satisfied his conscience.
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