SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 3, Informative) by SDRefugee on Sunday December 06 2015, @06:43PM
I used/supported MS products as a sysadmin since WFW311, when I retired in 2010, I decided I was DONE with MS and other proprietary software, and switched to Linux. And after seeing the privacy nightmare that *is* Windows 10, I couldn't be happier. I did convert one of my Windows 7 licenses over to Windows 10 and played with 10 on my laptop for a while, after installing it with all of the privacy-destroying switches turned off, and everything possible to
turn off via gpedit.msc.. With a rpcapd running on my router, and a copy of Wireshark running on another machine under Linux, I found that the Windows 10 system had NOT disabled all of the bullshit.. It was still blabbing away to all of the many publicized urls that others have uncovered.. So, as for me, MS is dead to me, and I feel great sadness for anybody who either *has* to run MS products or simply *thinks* they have to....
America should be proud of Edward Snowden, the hero, whether they know it or not..