[Linux-aus] Young Aussies say pirated software is OK

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

2009/2/8 Anestis Kozakis <kenosti at gmail.com>:
> At 9:05 AM +1100 2009/02/08, Paul Wayper wrote:
>
> [Snip]
>
>>Maybe we need some rough calculations of how much you'd pay for the GIMP,
>>Inkscape, Open Office, etc. if they were competing against other products in
>>the field.  Picture it: "The GIMP - normally $249, but because we don't
>>believe in charging money we're giving it away!"  Would that make those people
>>'value' it more?
>>
>>I do think people are capable of differentiating cost from quality.  Equating
>>them only suits software vendors at the top of the range.  I also think the
>>people using an illegal copy of Photoshop "because it's good quality" are not
>>the same set as those using it because it cost them nothing.
>>
>>I do think that people realise that that $450 package of Photoshop still gets
>>them absolutely no help from Adobe, and that they look to the community for
>>help rather than the software author.  When the software author _is_ the
>>community, this closes the loop.
>>
>>Just some thoughts,
>>
>>Paul
>
> That might work, bit then you have people like my friend who has been
> bitten by badly written free software in the past.  The system
> screwed up Windows registry files, and he had to re-install his
> system from scratch.  So now he buys all his software, even Norton
> Security or McAfee Security.  No matter how much I tell him there is
> good free software out there (like AVG) that doesn't hook into the
> system and slow everything down, he won't budge.
>
> It's these kind of people we should also be trying to make understand
> that there is good, well written free software that won't screw up
> your system.


AVG is not free software, it is freeware.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeware
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software

Please don't conflate the two; it only makes our efforts more difficult.

Freeware has nothing to do with us. It is still proprietary and still
removes your freedoms. There's plenty of badly-written freeware out
there, and because it's closed source nobody can fix it. I as a member
of the free software community think it's unfair that we end up
getting the blame for this.


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