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So you thought you bought some software
At the heart of the computer industry are some very big lies, and some of them are especially iniquitous. One is about commercial software.
[...] Anyone who chooses to use free and open source software on their desktop regularly gets asked why. Why bother? Isn't it more work? Isn't the pro-grade gear commercial? Isn't it worth buying the good stuff? Windows is the industry standard, isn't it simply less work to go with the flow?
[...] The practical upshot of which is that most of the time, the commercial stuff isn't significantly better. No, it isn't less hassle. Mostly, it's more hassle, but if you're used to the nuisances you don't notice them. If the free software experience was really worse, most of us wouldn't do it.
[...] Anyone who chooses to use free and open source software on their desktop regularly gets asked why. Why bother? Isn't it more work? Isn't the pro-grade gear commercial? Isn't it worth buying the good stuff? Windows is the industry standard, isn't it simply less work to go with the flow?
[...] The reason that it's not better to buy software is simple, but it's a lie. A lie at the heart of the entire computer industry, but nonetheless a lie that's very hard to see – "for the same reason that people in Trafalgar Square can't see England," to quote a good book.
It isn't better to buy commercial software because you can't buy software.
It is not possible for you to own paid-for, commercial software. You can't buy it. You probably think that you have bought lots, but you haven't. All you really bought is a lie.
[...] All you can buy is licenses. Serial numbers or activation keys or maybe even hardware dongles. Strange abstract entities that only really exist in lawyers' minds, which claim to permit you to use someone else's software.
As someone who started installing gcc in the 80's, I use more open source packages than closed source. The only "bugs" they have tend to be compatibility issues. As in, $GiantCorp releases a new version of $PopularProgram and suddenly the Open Source version can't open the new save files.
(Score: 2) by SomeRandomGeek on Thursday October 06 2022, @05:57PM (1 child)
At some point in the lifecycle of a software product, the authors disappear. Maybe they die. Maybe they retire. Maybe they lose interest. Maybe future revenues don't justify the cost of continued to support. Maybe they are trying to push customers to the new hotness. Maybe they get acquired by another company. Maybe they go bankrupt. There are many reasons, but bit rot comes for all software eventually. In my own experience, most software users are heavily reliant on the strategy: "Before this software that I depend on rots, I will have already moved on."
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday October 07 2022, @02:47AM
Yeah, I've been trawling distros again, for the day when my beloved one-man-band-distro dies.
Things disappear, and either we've already found another solution (which doesn't exactly encourage the old one to live on) or we're left hanging.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.