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from the rethinking-closed-source-software dept.
Akkana reports via the Shallow Thoughts blog
I went to a night sky photography talk on Tuesday. The presenter talked a bit about tips on camera lenses, exposures; then showed a raw image and prepared to demonstrate how to process it to bring out the details.
His slides disappeared, the screen went blank, and then ... nothing. He wrestled with his laptop for a while. Finally he said "Looks like I'm going to need a network connection", left the podium, and headed out the door to find someone to help him with that.
I'm not sure what the networking issue was: the nature center has open wi-fi, but you know how it is during talks: if anything can possibly go wrong with networking, it will, which is why a good speaker tries not to rely on it. And I'm not blaming this speaker, who had clearly done plenty of preparation and thought he had everything lined up.
Eventually they got the network connection, and he connected to Adobe. It turns out the problem was that Adobe Photoshop is now cloud-based. Even if you have a local copy of the software, it insists on checking in with Adobe at least every 30 days. At least, that's the theory. But he had used the software on that laptop earlier that same day, and thought he was safe. But that wasn't good enough, and Photoshop picked the worst possible time--a talk in front of a large audience--to decide it needed to check in before letting him do anything.
Someone sitting near me muttered "I'd been thinking about buying that, but now I don't think I will." Someone else told me afterward that all Photoshop is now cloud-based; older versions still work, but if you buy Photoshop now, your only option is this cloud version that may decide ... at the least opportune moment ... that you can't use your software any more.
[...] I talked to the club president afterward and offered to give a GIMP talk to the club some time soon, when their schedule allows.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday December 06 2015, @02:25AM
The word "Gimp" is an oppressive slur which deeply offends me. Campaign to ban GIMP and get all of its maintainers fired from their day-jobs NOW!
GIMP software raped me in the ah-nuss!
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 06 2015, @02:47AM
Campaign to ban GIMP and get all of its maintainers fired from their day-jobs NOW!
But they're not employed: they do it for free! This is extremely triggering to me. We should ask the Gov't to ban this 'open-source' stuff, and make sure that all software is developed by people with jobs we can get them fired from.
(Score: 5, Funny) by dyingtolive on Sunday December 06 2015, @03:10AM
Remember kids, giving things away is communism.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Sunday December 06 2015, @06:48AM
It's not just giving. Downloading is also Communist.
Kids these days, what, they think they should receive an education for free?!
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Sunday December 06 2015, @04:31AM
Don't give Microsoft any ideas. They're already pushing through a law that will make it illegal to reverse engineer their office formats.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 06 2015, @08:34AM
They needn't bother - I still can't use doc, ppt, docs or pptx in Libreoffice for the simplest of document. Change font size? Nope... can't... handle... it... got... to... reset.... font. Fail.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday December 06 2015, @06:31PM
I still can't use doc, ppt, docs or pptx in Libreoffice for the simplest of document. Change font size? Nope... can't... handle... it... got... to... reset.... font. Fail.
I would say the fail must be with you. It all works fine on every PC I have tried it on, both Windows and Linux.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 06 2015, @03:10AM
Project HeliOS (now REGLUE) had the same gripe.
They had a contest to choose a different name for the package. [blogspot.com]
They then tweaked the source to remove the objectionable branding and substituted the new name (like IceWeasel did).
They then put that in their repositories.
(Talk about being on-topic in a thread about the advantages of FOSS vs EULAware.)
ArtForge [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [lxer.com]
(HeliOS' post is most of the way down the page--which has no accessibility features to allow me to index the link to his post.)
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Sunday December 06 2015, @03:32AM
I'd be pretty annoyed about that. I don't care one way or the other about the name, but it's annoying as hell to try to figure out why a package isn't present only to find that it got rebranded for 'reasons'.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday December 06 2015, @04:40AM
Not to mention that all that effort could have added new features or functionality to GIMP rather than be wasted in a totally righteous circle-jerk.
There are plenty of instances in open-source when forks are beneficial. This is not one of them. The fork's participants are going to be too busy arguing and discussing bullshit PC conventions rather than getting shit done.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by dyingtolive on Sunday December 06 2015, @05:12AM
I mean, at least it wasn't named EDDIEMURPHYSTRANNY.
Now that would be an awkward acronym, on pretty much every level.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday December 06 2015, @04:46AM
So, instead of getting things done, lets argue all day about bullshit PC conventions.
Those types are the functional equivalent of the useless assholes developing for Firefox who move one button to the left, the other to the right, and call it "progress" and a new release, and piss off everybody else who just wants to use usable shit regardless of politics or other superficial bullshit.
Fuck 'em.
(Score: 3, Funny) by dyingtolive on Sunday December 06 2015, @05:36AM
Man, you remember when Firefox wasn't the shitstain covering the sheets after a proper Saturday night?
Pepperage Farm remembers.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!