I have a bit of a problem with your apple solution, doubtless you have seen all the cases over microsoft using its monopoly over smaller companies to force its products on the consumers, WMP, paint, image viewer. The cases have showed that microsoft bundling these products with its product is hugely damaging to other companies.
Then you have your apple arguement, surely here apple is even more blatently guilty of this, forcing its products on the consumer leaving no market segment for any product which isnt its own.
To be fair, I dont care what they bundle an operating system as I will doubtless go through and strip it down to a bare minimum - but for the mainstream consumer they will stick to software like a bad habbit.
and want to add to the first one that : "main open source enemy it's the open source community itself" :)
there is so much time wasted with all that linux distribution and every software that do almost the same thing...and everything it's average quality and none is excellent. why this happens? because everybody think different (no references to apple here) and they want applications to work just as how they want(for them alone maybe), but rather than "upgrade" an existing one, they start from none again...
Originally Posted by Buzzons the point is that would need a learning curve, a new OS and apps you have never used before, that == effort, where as going to a search engine (ircspy // torrentspy // piratebay etc etc) and typing "office 2003" and downloading it == no effort. thus no effort > lots of effort
Yeah, I was in WH Smiths the other day and picked up a bunch of DVD's and Games.. it was a real effort to get my wallet out, give them my card, enter my PIN and put it back again... so I just stole them.
Quote:
You can also use it to download your Hotmail messages.
You mention this in the Thunderbird section, yet in the FAQ on the site here, it states that it doesn't support it. I tried using it but gave up when I found out it wouldn't handle my hotmail either.
Thunderbird can handle Hotmail but as you say they don't make it very clear even in the FAQ! You need to get an extension called WebMail from http://webmail.mozdev.org/. The new version works with hotmail beta as well.
Originally Posted by chunky_monkey Thunderbird can handle Hotmail but as you say they don't make it very clear even in the FAQ! You need to get an extension called WebMail from http://webmail.mozdev.org/. The new version works with hotmail beta as well.
Originally Posted by :: kna :: Yeah, I was in WH Smiths the other day and picked up a bunch of DVD's and Games.. it was a real effort to get my wallet out, give them my card, enter my PIN and put it back again... so I just stole them.
lol, but i think what he meant is to explain why people pirate over using free software, his point seems sound. i'll explain how i interpreted it:
RULE: its not an option to buy
OPTIONS: piracy, or freeware
REASONING: to use freeware you need to learn how to use it which takes some effort, so instead you can pirate the non-free software (EASILY through methods he mentioned) and it takes no effort. so people choose piracy.
Good article, Ill definitely be looking into those GIMPs. One question though, how exactly do FAST find out if anyone has illegitimate software? What sort of scans do they do? Anyone got any facts/figures on how many people have been caught over the last year for example?
I've been thinking about going this way for a while just to see if it's doable, looks like you've done all the hard work for me.
For the record I have a fully paid up xp pro license these days, I dunno if I got scared of being a "pete the pirate" or I had a strange attack of morality but I just had to go out and buy one. I don't have Office installed because I never do any work. And I use Thunderbird for emails. In fact, I'm *almost* entirely legal.
You are very right with the article and I do believe in the core of it.
You had some really nice points, that you can get a fully functional Office (standard for the regular user) for not all to much money. You want experiences? You get them ;)
Piracy is a very non-illegal topic these days. Nobody cares anymore using freely available filesharing programs and downloading software he needs. It is beyong the friend giving the software he bought - everybody can have everything. Ok I'm not saying anything new here, but you always need some kind of introduction ;)
There have been discussions that Office is too expensive etc. It is definately not too expensive in my eyes. I'm sorry to say it, but it is THE standard and THEREFORE the best. OpenOffice is not bad, but it just doesn't have the interaction some people need to operate correctly with MS Windows. I myself used Office illegal for many years and finally bought 2003, cuz I was using Access intensively as well as Publisher - not to mention WOrd etc of course. I do believe it was really worth the money I paid for it. I am a poor student and therefore I really have to turn every penny wether to spend it or not. I am using the Photoshop you talk about too. Illegaly. Is this a secret confession going out to all the software companies? No not really. I know at least 35 people around me who use Photoshop for EXACTLY the reasons you list: Because the can have it. Most of them don't even know what an histogramm is (to Adobe: no, those users would not buy PS anyways, hence no lost profit). I for my part got used to Photoshop. I don't want to miss it anymore. I can say after working with it for many years and using it for Print Publishing and other things (yes sometimes with legal versions in the university, but you're not always in the library and you wanna work at home) and I know my way around it.
ALternatives? Sorry none. GIMP is really alright, but Photoshop is simply better - and everybody knows that. GIMP is really perfect if you want something free, but if you wanna do something more elaborate, people tend to use Photoshop. Another reason: When doing something in publishing later and you know Photoshop - you're hired ;)
I'll skip the buying windows part since it's part of everyones computer. I am using Windows Home Edition with some tweaked functions, so I am able to use the extended user rights management (not illegal, just tweaks) - don't need anything else from Professional.
In my opinion the software companies take a wrong approach in tackling Piracy. They cannot fight piracy (P2P, usenet, FTP, you name it) in its roots or in its distribution ways, the have to fight piracy in the peoples minds.
Stealing a television from a store is illegal. Downloading Adobe Photoshop is illegal. Piracy is illegal. As easy as that.
Because it is so easy to do soemthing illegal, people don't care about it. Personnaly I'm a big fighter for the messages the warez groups spread: "If you like the software, buy it". This is what I am doing since a long time. If I really like a program, I buy it (this included programs from every kind, FTP, Instant Messengin, E-Mail). Why didn't I buy Photoshop? Well you know there was this new version and I just had to have it and it was just a click and my dowload-limit wasn't reached yet and Adobe makes it so expensive... Excuses. I should really buy it sometimes!
good article, i personally love openoffice but the reason i haven't switched over to linux yet is 2 fold. And yes i have tried it in the past.
I do video editing and what not and haven't found a decent alternative to Premiere Elements 2.0 and a decent DV Capture Program :( Secondly i have around 300GB of data on a dynamic disk volume and i can't lose anyof it :(. Games aren't a big thing for me as i think they are starting to rot my brain.
so unless somebody knows of some good alternatives for those problems please let me know otherwise i will stick with my bloatware for now, BTW i loath having to dual boot.
Of course, there are cheaper ways of being legal. Given the same shopping list, the first move is to buy all-OEM versions. Normally reserved for bundling with pre-built machines, buying OEM software as an individual is still perfectly legal as long as you buy "a non-peripheral computer hardware component" with it, according to Microsoft. That means adding a £5 mouse to your order is a no-no, but next time you're buying stuff like CPU, RAM, motherboard or graphics card etc you are entitled to add OEM software to your basket. The savings can be substantial:
This is NOT correct.
Microsoft OEM software and hardware must be supplied pre-installed on a new computer.
You cannot legally buy Microsoft OEM software and hardware if it is not going to be installed on a new computer.
Microsoft OEM software and hardware must be supplied pre-installed on a new computer.
You cannot legally buy Microsoft OEM software and hardware if it is not going to be installed on a new computer.
you are wrong.
an oem license can be bought with an important part of a pc (hd, mobo, etc), that's all. it doesn't have to come prebuilt and preinstalled.
and a supplier can buy 3 oem licenses without any other part...
Actually Microsoft changed its licensing strategy and you are right in saying "you cannot buy OEM", because yes - those versions are only supplied to system vendors like Dell, Gateway etc. but There are the so called System Builder Editions (SBE) or was it units SBU? Don't remember. It's some new thing and they do exactly what those Bundles OEM version+computer mouse used to do. Just a different name. It is perfeclty legal to buy those versions.
Originally Posted by voystar Actually Microsoft changed its licensing strategy and you are right in saying "you cannot buy OEM", because yes - those versions are only supplied to system vendors like Dell, Gateway etc. but There are the so called System Builder Editions (SBE) or was it units SBU? Don't remember. It's some new thing and they do exactly what those Bundles OEM version+computer mouse used to do. Just a different name. It is perfeclty legal to buy those versions.
For example, if you are building a pc from components you may purchase OEM and install that yourself.
You may NOT purchase OEM and install that software/ hardware on an existing system. For example, you purchased a PC last year and fancied installing a legit copy of office so bought an OEM copy.
OEM software/ hardware is ONLY for use on new systems.
If you purchase OEM without new hardware/ software you are doing so under the pre-tense that you are a system builder building a new system. The responsibility of the system builder licence is transfered from the retailer to the end user when the end user purchases the OEM. Thus it is the end user in breach of licence when they install the OEM on old hardware.
Previously we were using really old versions of office. I think it was Office 95. I have just ported them over to Open Office.
I must say so far they havent even noticed, well just that the document icons have change. Personally I have a couple of issues with the spreadsheet app and some of the my original excel spreadsheets, however after a little tweaking all is working fine. Can be a little sluggish when you open up any of the applications, but nothing we cant wait for.
The clients still use Windows for OS, as I dont feel confident supporting a linux desktop yet. (OS's were purchased OEM, when I bought the bits to build the two machines).
Also for our network backbone, we have an SBS2003 server, again purchased OEM when I built the server. If it was a simple file server I would have considered the linux route, however we wanted exchange functionality.
Open source/ freeware has come a long way imo, though for complete alternatives it still needs to go a little further.
Finally you have my Dell lappy which I did do a little sneak by buying Office XP Prof OEM, when I bought the hardware/software for the clients. I needed access for a database.
I must must commend Microsoft for their recent initiatives on the Express Editions. Im trying to port my access database to SQL/Web Interface, so that the clients on the network can use a browser to update (Rather then me having to do all the updates on my laptops). The express editions have given me powerfull tools/ applications for nothing. As I have next to no clue about SQL/ASP, the ability for me to do this at no cost has encouraged me to start learning it.
I feel piracy is all about attitude. I have family living in the house next door, I bought them a bog standard dell machine so they could get on the net etc etc. Now they had to type a letter, and didnt want to do it in wordpad. Their attitude was "just put office on". 10 mins later I had open office on and they were working away non the wiser.
At the end of the day, the programmers / developers spend time / effort making something, its only fair that they should reap benefit from it. Sure somethings seems expensive, but if it seems that way to you maybe you dont need it.
One of my favorite free apps for photo indexing and basic editing is picasa2 from google. If you don't need to do any advanced editing of photo's it's extremely useful.
Originally Posted by Anakha Me too. I used to love AmigaOS.
Check out AROS. They're trying to make AmigaOS on x86 a reality.
Yeah. they're pretty cool. but AmigaOS, is CPU independant, they just need to get off their arses and write X86/X64 code for it.
since they made all the rest essentially portable, and kept the main cpu code away from the rest of it.
Comments 51 to 75 of 94
Then you have your apple arguement, surely here apple is even more blatently guilty of this, forcing its products on the consumer leaving no market segment for any product which isnt its own.
To be fair, I dont care what they bundle an operating system as I will doubtless go through and strip it down to a bare minimum - but for the mainstream consumer they will stick to software like a bad habbit.
and want to add to the first one that : "main open source enemy it's the open source community itself" :)
there is so much time wasted with all that linux distribution and every software that do almost the same thing...and everything it's average quality and none is excellent. why this happens? because everybody think different (no references to apple here) and they want applications to work just as how they want(for them alone maybe), but rather than "upgrade" an existing one, they start from none again...
Thunderbird can handle Hotmail but as you say they don't make it very clear even in the FAQ! You need to get an extension called WebMail from http://webmail.mozdev.org/. The new version works with hotmail beta as well.
Aha! Thanks for that.
RULE: its not an option to buy
OPTIONS: piracy, or freeware
REASONING: to use freeware you need to learn how to use it which takes some effort, so instead you can pirate the non-free software (EASILY through methods he mentioned) and it takes no effort. so people choose piracy.
I've been thinking about going this way for a while just to see if it's doable, looks like you've done all the hard work for me.
For the record I have a fully paid up xp pro license these days, I dunno if I got scared of being a "pete the pirate" or I had a strange attack of morality but I just had to go out and buy one. I don't have Office installed because I never do any work. And I use Thunderbird for emails. In fact, I'm *almost* entirely legal.
You had some really nice points, that you can get a fully functional Office (standard for the regular user) for not all to much money. You want experiences? You get them ;)
Piracy is a very non-illegal topic these days. Nobody cares anymore using freely available filesharing programs and downloading software he needs. It is beyong the friend giving the software he bought - everybody can have everything. Ok I'm not saying anything new here, but you always need some kind of introduction ;)
There have been discussions that Office is too expensive etc. It is definately not too expensive in my eyes. I'm sorry to say it, but it is THE standard and THEREFORE the best. OpenOffice is not bad, but it just doesn't have the interaction some people need to operate correctly with MS Windows. I myself used Office illegal for many years and finally bought 2003, cuz I was using Access intensively as well as Publisher - not to mention WOrd etc of course. I do believe it was really worth the money I paid for it. I am a poor student and therefore I really have to turn every penny wether to spend it or not. I am using the Photoshop you talk about too. Illegaly. Is this a secret confession going out to all the software companies? No not really. I know at least 35 people around me who use Photoshop for EXACTLY the reasons you list: Because the can have it. Most of them don't even know what an histogramm is (to Adobe: no, those users would not buy PS anyways, hence no lost profit). I for my part got used to Photoshop. I don't want to miss it anymore. I can say after working with it for many years and using it for Print Publishing and other things (yes sometimes with legal versions in the university, but you're not always in the library and you wanna work at home) and I know my way around it.
ALternatives? Sorry none. GIMP is really alright, but Photoshop is simply better - and everybody knows that. GIMP is really perfect if you want something free, but if you wanna do something more elaborate, people tend to use Photoshop. Another reason: When doing something in publishing later and you know Photoshop - you're hired ;)
I'll skip the buying windows part since it's part of everyones computer. I am using Windows Home Edition with some tweaked functions, so I am able to use the extended user rights management (not illegal, just tweaks) - don't need anything else from Professional.
In my opinion the software companies take a wrong approach in tackling Piracy. They cannot fight piracy (P2P, usenet, FTP, you name it) in its roots or in its distribution ways, the have to fight piracy in the peoples minds.
Stealing a television from a store is illegal. Downloading Adobe Photoshop is illegal. Piracy is illegal. As easy as that.
Because it is so easy to do soemthing illegal, people don't care about it. Personnaly I'm a big fighter for the messages the warez groups spread: "If you like the software, buy it". This is what I am doing since a long time. If I really like a program, I buy it (this included programs from every kind, FTP, Instant Messengin, E-Mail). Why didn't I buy Photoshop? Well you know there was this new version and I just had to have it and it was just a click and my dowload-limit wasn't reached yet and Adobe makes it so expensive... Excuses. I should really buy it sometimes!
voy
i add that's the same for games...if i like a game, i buy it. otherwise it isn't a lost profit, that's all.
I do video editing and what not and haven't found a decent alternative to Premiere Elements 2.0 and a decent DV Capture Program :( Secondly i have around 300GB of data on a dynamic disk volume and i can't lose anyof it :(. Games aren't a big thing for me as i think they are starting to rot my brain.
so unless somebody knows of some good alternatives for those problems please let me know otherwise i will stick with my bloatware for now, BTW i loath having to dual boot.
This is NOT correct.
Microsoft OEM software and hardware must be supplied pre-installed on a new computer.
You cannot legally buy Microsoft OEM software and hardware if it is not going to be installed on a new computer.
you are wrong.
an oem license can be bought with an important part of a pc (hd, mobo, etc), that's all. it doesn't have to come prebuilt and preinstalled.
and a supplier can buy 3 oem licenses without any other part...
voy
(not that I'm in a position to judge....)
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/licensing_and_compliance/licence_options/oem/
Basically, if you buy OEM software/ hardware as a system builder you may install that onto new hardware.
For example, if you are building a pc from components you may purchase OEM and install that yourself.
You may NOT purchase OEM and install that software/ hardware on an existing system. For example, you purchased a PC last year and fancied installing a legit copy of office so bought an OEM copy.
OEM software/ hardware is ONLY for use on new systems.
If you purchase OEM without new hardware/ software you are doing so under the pre-tense that you are a system builder building a new system. The responsibility of the system builder licence is transfered from the retailer to the end user when the end user purchases the OEM. Thus it is the end user in breach of licence when they install the OEM on old hardware.
Previously we were using really old versions of office. I think it was Office 95. I have just ported them over to Open Office.
I must say so far they havent even noticed, well just that the document icons have change. Personally I have a couple of issues with the spreadsheet app and some of the my original excel spreadsheets, however after a little tweaking all is working fine. Can be a little sluggish when you open up any of the applications, but nothing we cant wait for.
The clients still use Windows for OS, as I dont feel confident supporting a linux desktop yet. (OS's were purchased OEM, when I bought the bits to build the two machines).
Also for our network backbone, we have an SBS2003 server, again purchased OEM when I built the server. If it was a simple file server I would have considered the linux route, however we wanted exchange functionality.
Open source/ freeware has come a long way imo, though for complete alternatives it still needs to go a little further.
Finally you have my Dell lappy which I did do a little sneak by buying Office XP Prof OEM, when I bought the hardware/software for the clients. I needed access for a database.
I must must commend Microsoft for their recent initiatives on the Express Editions. Im trying to port my access database to SQL/Web Interface, so that the clients on the network can use a browser to update (Rather then me having to do all the updates on my laptops). The express editions have given me powerfull tools/ applications for nothing. As I have next to no clue about SQL/ASP, the ability for me to do this at no cost has encouraged me to start learning it.
I feel piracy is all about attitude. I have family living in the house next door, I bought them a bog standard dell machine so they could get on the net etc etc. Now they had to type a letter, and didnt want to do it in wordpad. Their attitude was "just put office on". 10 mins later I had open office on and they were working away non the wiser.
At the end of the day, the programmers / developers spend time / effort making something, its only fair that they should reap benefit from it. Sure somethings seems expensive, but if it seems that way to you maybe you dont need it.
Just my thoughts
Nims
http://picasa.google.com/
Yeah. they're pretty cool. but AmigaOS, is CPU independant, they just need to get off their arses and write X86/X64 code for it.
since they made all the rest essentially portable, and kept the main cpu code away from the rest of it.