Do you support the free software. Do you believe that it's a very good alternative to the privative software. For example we have pretty good examples of the superiority of this kind of software in many areas, mainly in operating systems, where GNU/Linux is an operating system much superior than the most used, Windows. It is more safe, more scalable, and many others features. And, in the other hand, when we talk about ethics, also free software is ethically superior to the privative software, because it gives real freedom, while the privative software enslaves you What do you prefer where you have choices, free software or privative software? I already made my choice, I choose the side of the freedom, Free Software
I use both. At home I have Windows and free software, at work I mainly use free software. There is very good free software for general purposes, when it becomes more special, it becomes more difficult to get quality free software. It's still ok in software development and parts of electrical engineering.
For what I do, I have enough with free software, so I only use free software, and I expect to don't need privative software. Although in University I don't have other possibility to use privative software, but at home I'm using free software. But, I consider that the most important is be coherent in what you defend and you believe, in any aspect of life. (It is for the point of ethics that I mentioned). But it's true that the problem comes when you need some specialized application and only you have the privative choice. But in many other points free software is enough, and more for what is used generally: - Chat-messenger - Office aplications - Internet - Multimedia So it covers the greatest part of the poblation. Only the free software for now is very weak in games.
Financial applications and CAD? There is some lack of free software. In Spanish there are some interesting applications for small and medium business, but is incompatible with other countries, and more about accountacy. About CAD I'm not an expert, but there aren't applications as good as Autocad. In this area free software has some lack of quality. There are some applications, but I don't know them and neither their quality. Free software is also good in 3D design(blender for example), well in development areas, also have good applications for professionals of music and video editors. But for architecture or areas related to traditional engineering there isn't enough good software, maybe electric and chips.
I think Google has a free quasi-CAD application if CAD is for drafting(?). It's suppose to be pretty good, but of course that all depends on how technical you have to be. This is a great thread, by the way. Makes some good points. Linux users are adamant about that software, and it's nice to hear from one who isn't actually rabid. They can be real (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)s. You are very civil.
I have been using Ubuntu at home for for about six months. I have found many great programs for it, but a cad and a good accounting program is lacking. Gnu Cash is ok for the average house hold but a business would not want to use it; and as for CAD unless you can create and open auto desk files no contractor or architectural firm will use it. But If we could just get intuit and Autodesk to make their programs compatible with Linux It would give Business the opportunity to make the switch. Maybe it would be easier to have a mac os elumiator since most programs are written in Windoz and Mac. that elumination a mac os would be more compatabel than wine.
For business which applications do you use in USA? For business for the Spanish is created BULMAges that is a very good application, but it's in Spanish and the accounting system is the Spanish one that is incompatible with the rest of the world. But the managing application I think that can be universal(I don't know if it is translated to English or not). And Ubuntu is a very good starter distribution also for lazy people like me xD. And other question, do you believe that in schools should be teached with free software instead of privative software?
MMOs have been migrating to hybrid pricing models...so you get access to the base content for free, and then pay extra for perks in-game. Lord of the Rings Online and Champions Online recently switched to these pricing models and it seems to be working well for them so far. So at least as far as MMOs are concerned, yeah, you can get quality games for free without pirating.
I choose whatever will save me the most time and save the most aggravation. Sometimes that is freeware; other times I pay through the nose for quality and support. I've been a UNIX programmer and expert in networking on UNIX boxes. I know its power, and I loved setting it up. However, I would consider it irresponsible to saddle my customers with a UNIX or Linux box as there are very few people who can support, even fewer who are self-employed, and the cost becomes prohibitive for maintenance. The cost of "free" when it comes to commercial applications is sometimes considerable. One of my clients is notoriously cheap. They wanted web monitoring software, so I setup Untangled. It's a great product, and free for the basic functions. However, when they want real-time updates, they are out of luck as all reporting is done the day after.
I'm sorry but all the smilies in the world aren't going to prevent that statement being complete rubbish. Paying for software in absolutely no way enslaves you. All else being equal, only a fool would pay for something he could get for free. I use whatever software best does the job I want to do. What it costs be, in money, time or effort is just one part of the judgement. I don't see the logic in making a general choice like that. Are you suggesting you wouldn't use paid-for software even if it was much better than any free alternatives? Also out of interest, given you're interested in the ethical aspect, have you ever made an optional payment/donation to a freeware developer and do you always stick to the terms of the relevant licensing agreements (or do you just not read them like the rest of us)?
Sorry, but who understood that I was refering to payment is you. I was talking about free, freedom, liberty, not costs. Well, I choose freedom, even if I have to choose between two applications without cost, I choose the free(libre) one. No, I'm saying that if I have an alternative I will use the alternative instead the privative(not paying). I will pay for any free software, just I was comparing two models Privative software - Libre software, not software with cost - software with no cost. I hate that in English you have the same word to refer freedom(liberty)-free and no-cost(free). Sorry, but you're confusing freeware with free software, aren't the same. And I've never done a donation to a freeware developer and I never will do, because they are developing privative software. Yes, that I've doned to free software developers and I will keep doing it.
Do you consider to give GNU/Linux for example to a client something prohibitive? :-S Well, the maintenance of Linux isn't too complicated, and there are many people that could give support. When I worked as system administrator we installed Linux in many computers, Linux is so maintenable as any Windows. And later, about monitoring software there are free sofware applications(libre not free as beer) that are incredible powerful.
Kilgram, My mistake. For all the words we borrowed from other languages, English can still be so misleading. My opinion of free/libre software isn't all that different though. I still think your statement about enslavement is exaggerated rhetoric. Free software can be an effective solution for some people in some situations but for others closed software is the better (or only) alternative. I don't hold with the morality issue. Developing open software for the public good is commendable but that doesn't make developing closed software for a profit a bad thing. I don't think the scale and scope of software technology would be anything like as good if we have relied on a free software model entirely.
Do you know that in the 70s the software relied in a free software model? And wasn't going badly. As I've said where I see more problems of the free software is in the games, but how are now developed the games online, can be free software perfectly I believe. And about the enslavement rethoric maybe is exaggerated but not too much. You don't have the freedom to choose the changes that you want to your software, you depends of the company and even more, the software isn't yours, you have a license to use, and this license always can be changed, the company only makes a rental to you of his software, he keeps the property. With free software when you get a software, this software is yours and you can do whatever you want with him, so the rethoric of slavery I don't see so exaggerated.
Yes. For instance I used to rely on Windows Media Player to watch movies on my machine before I learned it was a junk software. Then a friend of mine helped me install a cracked version of some other private media player, but it still wasn't working well and required many stupid updates and codecs. Now I use VLC media player and I am free! I am free! I am free! No more life in the prison for me! I am free as a bird! I am free
I'm not saying it didn't play an important role, espeically with early innovation, only that free software alone wouldn't have got us as far as free software plus closed software in balance. I think games are the least important area actually and as you say, can lend themselves to free software models. Much more important is software used in businesses and government. Free software can offer companies advantages and disadvantages which need to be carefully considered. It isn't a magical solution to all our computing problems. Yes, but that's meaningless to 99% of people who don't know the first thing about software development. I do have (some of) the skills but even I couldn't be bothered developing my own code (or even checking what others have written) for the software I use at home.
No, when I say free software I mean free software, although the most of times can be refered to that as open source, although I dislike this form because there isn't moral reasons of this term. And also some licenses of open source aren't free software, so aren't accepted by the Free Software Foundation. And if I was refering to free(gratis) privative software I would call that correctly freeware. Freeware(software gratis) isn't the same that free software(libre).
I use what I need to use. That may be very expensive work software like encase that costs thousands of dollors or something free like open office. If you can get the funtionality of something for free great, sometimes paying will get you a better product. I don't and never will do anything like boycotting purchased software. That would not work for my career or my recreation.
Uncle Ferd likes playin' like he's a Linux geek onna computer... Ubuntu swaps application menus for HUD control system 25 January 2012 - The HUD control replaces menus with a panel into which users write the command that they want carried out
With any software, being "free", "libre" or "private", you are still a slave to it if the resulting document produced by it isn't compatible with anything else. In recent years, XML based system helped a lot but it is still no panacea. Take a graphical application for exemple. Almost all can save in a servicable format like JPG, PNG, GIF... But then you lose the formating and metadata, like layers and effect needed in editing the image. Most of them use a propietary/closed format to save these info like PSD for photoshop. The only plateform that I know that imposed a standard in media file format was the good old Amiga with the IFF file format. So what I'm trying to say is basically, that independent of which software/OS you are using presently, you'll get more and more dependant and locked in the more you use it unless you can make sure that the file format/communication protocols it use is either trivial in its structure or really future proof...
I use the Adobe Creative Suite. Although there are crappy work arounds to get it to work with Linux, they are just that...crap. Of course there's GIMP, an open source image editor that's supposed to mimic Photoshop..but it doesn't. There is no 'private software'. Technically you don't own software. You just pay for the use of it. So actually, since you never really own any software, and you use pirated software, the crime should be neglecting to pay the use fee. Being that most software is free from the author, to download as a demo, how can you be arrested for stealing that software? Modifying it? yes. Actually, only modifying a copy, provided by the author. They still retain the original software.
