Yeah, it’s what I meant, pardon. It only stops Blender’s own connection to the Extensions platform, not any extensions. I edited the post to be clearer.
Short version: Blender’s Get Extensions page won’t connect to the Extensions portal anymore. No more updates checking nor extensions list download. Anything else is free to connect.
Yes- there has never been a way to stop add-ons from connecting to the Internet. Nothing has changed in that regard. The change is that now there is a checkbox suggesting that. Suggesting being the key word, as I’ve said 
Okay, understand. That’s a bit misleading then, at least for me as a technical noob. 
And stating there’s no need to be worried for the “extra concerned about privacy” could hurt more than help, in a video on the 4.2 launch page.
It can easily be misconstrued, interpreted literally, and thus not understanding there’s no safeguard whatsoever whilst plausibly stating the opposite. That’s unnecessary.
Well, to me at least.
Many years back there was concern that an addon enabled at launch could act like malware and wreak havoc with a user’s machine (since access to the whole Python library allows for far more than the basics needed for Blender). The BF addressed this through things like allowing the user to mark an addon as trusted.
I do not see anything major that changed honestly, there is no online-only DRM and it is just about impossible to move Blender out of the constraints of the GPL.
You simply does not have any automatically addon update without internet access. but you can download them separatly if you want. The auto update feature is so much wanted from some users.
It seems whatever the blender-foundation/developer do they have the most shitiet job ever because they are accursed by everone. 
What’s missunderstandable here:
EXTENSIONS
ADD-ONARE- ONAdd-ons and themes have received a big overhaul and are now unified as Extensions.
The best part? They can be updated right from within Blender!
…WORK
OFFLINE
Internet access is fully optional, and off by default.
You can always install extensions manually via Install from Disk (or drag and drop the zip file into Blender) or by using System extensions repositories.
There are more security problems when using “any” browser all day long and not only when using for more then one site. Or the operation system itself “calls home”. Or the license of a major player grants them the right to look into your content or their apps simple doesn’t not work.
The wording of the feature could be improved and the statement of the video on the official 4.2 launch page isn’t helping, I’d say.
There was no safety before, there’s none now. That’s fine. Stating the opposite would be the problem, if deemed so.
The extensions feature is a good idea. Not so sure about certain things, but it works apparently and it’s not made for me. I’ll use it and learn to enjoy it. It’s this kind of awkward thing that baffles me: I can’t understand how this is not obviously unnecessarily dangerous, potentially.
Anyway, this is it. And there’s plenty to enjoy in the release.
It could also be said that almost everybody is enthusiastic about Blender and the chaps at the Blender HQ.
Only a few complain persistently, I’d say. But it’s not that bad. Or is it? I don’t see it that way.
They are also grown-up’s. I’m sure they can handle criticism, undeserved insults and misbehaviour they’re most probably getting no matter what they do or say, and focus on the job. Well, I’d certainly hope so.
There’ll be always cult-ish following and unrepentant abrasive attacks. I don’t much see the point on tackling this here. It won’t probably change.
Hopefully they’ll be able to ignore the noise, and / or filter what’s useful.
Personally, I think the BF outdoes themselves with the what’s new page with every new release. It’s just that, though, a “What’s new” page, and it’s only ever called that:
It’s meant to advertise a new release, not be an exhaustive list of changes, that’s what the release notes are for.
“The website is too nice”
I swear, you’ve got to be looking for things to complain about
That´s true, not inside Blender.
Tunneling/Shaping and blocking/limiting traffic is done with other Applications.
Simplest method is a block inside the Firewall.
I have not checked the flashy publicity page, I agree that it is very “gimic” and not really informative, that is why I never read it.
I always use the experimental versions and check out the release notes here
https://developer.blender.org/docs/release_notes/
There is a link to them in the experimental download page which I always check out to see if it is worth updating.
The problem is a new checkbox labelled in a way that indicates internet traffic is not allowed, when in fact it is allowed.
Well… sometimes it’s a bit of frustrating to here all these “noise” and indeed some people seems to be non- or never-grown-ups.
And also when i knew this, from time to time it simply has to be said. 
In fact a minute after i posted this i realized: some people just “listen” to videos and quick messages and do interpret to much into something what someone said “in that moment” (like maybe too muchpeople do in “social media” ) and do not bother to read to get some more info.
( Some people also seems to not know that via Blender → Help → Manual … you get into the manual… also online… but as said: <sarcasm> a browser of course is much safer than blender </sarcasm> 
)
Yeah, it’s funny to hear artists complaining about images in a new release page
Yes, I understand. If we see what appears to us as unfounded attacks on someone we should feel not OK. But then again, what’s the point, on-line?
Defending honours, or attacking culprits of all kinds of evil are the same noise to me. At least in a professional setting. OK, here’s a bit wishy-washy, with Blender, but you get the point. 
Hopefully, they’ll get the useful and discard the rest and work comfortably, or at least not bothered about “what people say”. They are not, though, children. Not ours, anyway.
No,no… hold your horses please. This is a missunderstanding.
My critique was mainly how the website doesn’t seem to provide a link to the release notes just about anywhere, where you’d be reasonably expected to find it unless you know the URL in advance by heart anyway.
Again, click here:
and it gets you to the marketing-buzz landing-page crap (mind you, the same you get to if just typing blender.org into your browser! clicking on the ‘What’s New’ link on the 4.2 download page).
Apart from that, it is my opinion (and I stand by that), what you call ‘nice’ is mainly obfuscating tangible information for the sake of marketing-glitter.
And I want to remind you I literally started my post stating:
Of course what follows is expected to be opinionated.
Obviously you don’t have to agree with me, that’s fine if you don’t.
greetings, Kologe
I don’t care for the fancy web either, but it’s done on purpose, and I understand why. It serves, then, that purpose and I think it accomplishes it well. All good.
I think I tend to go straight to the meat like @DNorman so maybe it’s always been like it is now. But a link to the actual release notes would be nice and useful there.
Well… the blender people are no marketing experts (most of them i guess)… also because they do not have to because the sell no product.
So it may be understandable that sometimes they seems to be more euphoric than they should… and this may resutl into some not-so-precise formulations… they are also only humans
And while typing this i think the “usual” press releases of some paid stuff is also not very precise but only talks about all the new blinky-blinky stuff ( like newest high tech used for something you do not even need for ) and tells nothing about some feature wanted by their customers for years ( well… some ).
Just search for: “What are your favorite longstanding XYZ bug?” and replace XYZ with any major app.
To be fair, @Kologe states that a link called “Release Notes” doesn’t forward you to Release Notes.
Pretty images are great, but while artists may like images in general, most of 3D artists are technical artists and need/want to know the infos before updating.
I think that’s common sense and this discussion seems to go on tangents no one really wanted to go on in the first place?
