On Fri, Nov 29, 2013 19:20:03 PM -0500, Virgil Arrington wrote: > James wrote in response to John: > >>I didn't know we considered trialware "cunning". > > >They let people create & edit documents for a while and then hold > >them hostage, until the users coughs up for MS Office. > > I wouldn't consider it either cunning or holding people hostage to > provide them with a free trial of software that is otherwise only > available for a price.
you would be wrong, because your reasoning simply does NOT apply to software. Not to software of this kind, at least. Try a car for free for a week, give it back... no problem, because you would not lose anything you had done with/thanks to that car in that week. Office suites based on deliberately, closed, incompatible file formats, instead are ADDICTIVE like drugs. That's why they are given away for free (*), see here: http://stop.zona-m.net/2010/10/microsoft-video-proves-that-microsoft-office-is-like-cocaine-and-has-dealers-inside-schools/ and why it's wrong to push software instead of, or before, file formats, see here: http://stop.zona-m.net/2013/11/shall-we-waste-twelve-more-years-promoting-free-office-suites-instead-of-open-office-formats/ (as a matter of fact, this whole thread is yet another proof of what I wrote in that last post...) Marco (*) where "give it away for free" doesn't mean only "free trial periods". It also means keeping the software very easy to pirate so people learn it at home and then throw a tantrum if their company (that can't use pirated software) tries to migrate to something else -- M. Fioretti http://mfioretti.com http://stop.zona-m.net Your own civil rights and the quality of your life heavily depend on how software is used *around* you -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: [email protected] Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
