s. keeling wrote:
Incoming from Andrew Graupe:
s. keeling wrote:
- I won't have to throw away my machine when my vendor releases a new
version of his product. I upgrade on my schedule, not his.
Why would you now? Do you mean a new version of Windows?
That's what I meant but it can happen with any software. Given the
range of choices in free software, this is far less likely to happen.
When NT 4.0 came out, a whole bunch of hardware was instantly
obsoleted; NT no longer bothered to support them and NT drivers for
them didn't exist. That sort of thing doesn't happen with free
software. If something ever becomes supported, you can pretty much
expect it will always be supported.
- The software I use isn't a magnet for malware.
It will be soon, but that will all be fixed due to its free nature.
Irrelevant. The huge number of viruses and worms designed to attack
Windows is not due to the ubiquitous installed base of Windows. It's
due to Windows' pathetic security model. If all the virus writers
changed over to writing free software based viruses, the number of
owned systems would not go through the roof overnight. It would
inconvenience the Lindows crowd who are ignorant enough to login and
do everything as root.
The proof of this is the number of exploits out there for IIS
vs. apache. Apache's installed base is much bigger than IIS, yet it's
IIS that's been repeatedly cornholed over the years. MS' security
model sucks.
- I essentially own my software. You are licenced to run X number of
copies of your software on Y number of systems supporting Z number
of users.
<sarcasm>I would NEVER directly disobey a EULA. That would be
unethical</sarcasm>
It is unethical. It's theft. There are few things I hate more than
watching software professionals run pirated code.
I'm not a software professional. It just appears that way because I use
linux ;)
I met a guy just
the other day who owns NO legally obtained commercial software. He
offered me a cracked version of a commercial firewall in case I wanted
to boot to Windows and put it on the net. I told him no thanks; the
only reason WinME is on this thing is in case Dell wants to know if
potential problems I have with the hardware are really hardware or
just software based. I never boot my WinME. Why would I?
In my defense, I only download software that is unreasonably priced, and
I never use it to make money. If a piece of software is under $100, I
will pay for it. The fact that Photoshop is $500 has priced it out of
my range. If I bought, for example, Photoshop and Flash, I could have
spent that money on a not-too-bad new computer. Also, I am not sure why
*anyone* would boot ME.
I am a steadfast linux user. I find it offensive that you would refer
to commercial software authors as "mine".
[snip]
Some things improve. FS2004 was a huge improvement over FS2002. Just
because you pick examples of the worst proprietary software, doesn't
When you lie with dogs, you get fleas. :-)
Just to be clear, I'm not condemning "proprietary software." I own a
copy of Applix. I've bought lots of commercial software over the
years. I have no problem whatever with people selling the fruits of
their efforts.
I'm condemning MS and Windows. They're the ones with the predatory
business practices, the proprietary file formats, and their "embrace
and extend" vendor lock-in development and marketing. That they do
all that with shoddy software is just another nail in their coffin for
me.
- The fact that it _never_ shoots itself in the head _is expected
behaviour_, not simply an added benefit.
Gentoo (etc-update, specifically), nearly made my system unbootable. It
was easy to fix, but a bit of a headache. Could someone explain why it
would be set to overwrite /etc/fstab with a copy that is SURE not to work?
Ask Gentoo? Anytime I've installed Linux, when the installer says
it's time to reboot, I always get to another console and look around,
making sure what it's done is sane. Why wouldn't you? It's just a
complicated hammer, after all. It's not artificial intelligence.
It's unrealistic to think that in systems as complex as this, things
are not going to fall through the cracks from time to time. That's what
we're here for; to provide the human element, and to sign off on the
result.
I'm just pointing out that it's hypocritical to criticize one system for
doing stupid things and not the other. I accept full responsibility for
what happened to my Gentoo system.
And to make choices. :-) I choose not to use crappy software from
unethical distributors, no matter how pretty it is, especially when
those distributors act like MS has over the years.
Just so all of you know, I have finally converted almost fully to my
linux computer. I will now only play games or do other Windows-centric
activities on my XP box.
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