In the past, most software I used was paid and proprietary and would have some sort of limitation that I would try to get around by any means possible. Sometimes that would be resetting the clock on my computer, disabling the internet, and other times downloading a patch.
But in the past few years I’ve stopped using those things and have focused only on free and open source software (FOSS) to fulfill my needs. I hardly have to worry about privacy problems or trying to lock down a program that calls home. I might be missing out on some things that commercial software delivers, but I’m hardly aware of what they are anymore. It seems like the trend is for commercial software providers to migrate toward online or service models that have the company doing all the computing. I’m opposed to that, since they can take away your service at any time.
I don’t pirate software. Usually closed-source, proprietary garbage has a lot of sketchy stuff built in already, and I don’t have the energy to reverse engineer every cracked binary blob I download to make sure it doesn’t have spyware or ransomware or anything. Just pirate media, not software.
“Hi, Thanks for choosing us! Please sign into or sign up for your account! You agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy right?”
“Great, and thanks for your purchase! Did you know we have a limited time sale on our Ultra Pro Superprofessional Edition?”
“No? Well we also have a monthly subscription plan that can get you very cool features! Wanna check that out?”
“No? Alright we’ll get on with installation. But first, we need to make sure you’re not running a VM, VPN and other software we don’t like from our handy DRM software.”
“Oh, that DRM software also happens to collect your contact information and read your files so we can sell that for money. Thanks and enjoy!”
FOSS Experience:
Aight you got enough disk space? Here’s the GPL. Where we droppin? Cool, enjoy your program! Support me if you feel like it, bud!
I just use FOSS. I don’t trust that proprietary garbage. I generally don’t pirate software in general. Its far too easy to trojanize it. I also buy games on steam to support linux/deck and valves investment in the ecosystem, I buy them steeply discounted though. With Roms, sales and free games I have a massive backlog so being patient pays off.
I also find that the quality of the FOSS stuff is better and way more configurable. Not hating on anyone that does pirate software or prefers proprietary stuff, to each their own
Most people absoljutely do not ‘need’ photoshop or MS Office, but are too lazy to try out free alternatives. Sure they don’t offer 100% of the features, but for most home users they are more than enough What are people using Word for at home anyway? Creating a CV once every few years - its not like they are knocking out documents day after day.
FOSS over piracy for sure. While the UI and/or functionality is not often as good as the proprietary option with FOSS apps, I feel a lot more comfortable using them because they are free and you can see what’s going on with them better.
I’d love to use FOSS exclusively, but it’s frankly impossible under certain conditions.
Acrobat is a must. Alternatives such as Evince or their back-end library can’t handle the following situations:
Formulars, such as calculating a sum based on the preceding fields.
Field formatting, such as appending .00 to a currency amount conditionally upon field unfocus.
Everything related to government forms due to the above.
Large password protected PDF files.
Besides, if anything is wrong, you’re on the hook for not using Acrobat.
Microsoft Office is a must.
OnlyOffice, WPS free as in free beer, and especially LibreOffice can’t handle anything beyond intermediate documents.
OnlyOffice and WPS struggle with more advanced features, such as forms.
LibreOffice notoriously renders Microsoft Office documents incorrectly in my experience.
Everything in LibreOffice except LibreOffice Writer feels unpolished to me, particularly LibreOffice Calc.
OnlyOffice supports only few fields.
OnlyOffice permits free form input for fields that aren’t.
Adobe is a must.
Alternatives don’t integrate as well with each other as Adobe apps.
Rendering whatever you have to import that into another app is a slow workflow, compared to Adobe Premiere that embeds Adobe After Effects sequences, for example.
Alternatives don’t support scripting sometimes. Scripting is necessary to speed up slow and error-prone manual processes.
Adobe has a rich plugin ecosystem, whereas alternatives don’t support plugins at all, or don’t have any notable plugins.
Alternatives don’t support Adobe file formats as well as Adobe.
You face similar problems to Adobe with alternatives, such as:
Inconsistent keyboard shortcuts.
Inconsistent file format support.
Overall, I’d love to, but can’t. FOSS isn’t good enough.
Formulars, such as calculating a sum based on the preceding fields.
Field formatting, such as appending .00 to a currency amount
You’re doing it wrong. PDF with embedded javascript is a nightmare and it still doesn’t make PDF equal to excel.
Better generate your documents with your favourite HTML templating engine from your DB and convert them to simple PDF in the last step.
LibreOffice notoriously renders Microsoft Office documents incorrectly in my experience.
Only had that experience with badly designed, macro ridden documents which there’s no excuse for anyway nowadays.
I use a lot of print templates (various label printers) and it works flawlessly.
Also, exporting a non MS file format usually imports fine in LibreOffice, even with complex documents.
The ability to quickly edit PDF makes it the office suite of my choice.
Yeah, but if your boss or client sends you a document that doesn’t work you’re not going to tell them “Uh well this is a badly formed document and you shouldn’t embed scripts and it’s your fault that my FOSS alternative application can’t work with this”. At least I hope you’re not.
Of course I do and I expect my employees to report such incidents to IT. Such documents are common attack vectors.
In my experience, customers are not aware of failing interoperability or possible security threats and often grateful for such hints.
There’s a reason why libreoffice (and I guess other office suits aswell), evince or antivirus show a big, fat warning when opening such documents.
Surely there are cases were macros are useful or necessary, but if they have to leave the company, you’re doing it wrong.
About 20 years ago, I saw this exact same discussion on mozillazine. Everyone was raving about FOSS being nicer, friendlier, and more convenient, and how piracy is bothersome.
Then this guy posted a reply, to the tune of “Yeah, and now imagine your entire OS was like that… you should try it.”
A little later I did, and never looked back. For me, FOSS is convenience.
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I don’t pirate software. Usually closed-source, proprietary garbage has a lot of sketchy stuff built in already, and I don’t have the energy to reverse engineer every cracked binary blob I download to make sure it doesn’t have spyware or ransomware or anything. Just pirate media, not software.
Paid Software Experience:
FOSS Experience:
I just use FOSS. I don’t trust that proprietary garbage. I generally don’t pirate software in general. Its far too easy to trojanize it. I also buy games on steam to support linux/deck and valves investment in the ecosystem, I buy them steeply discounted though. With Roms, sales and free games I have a massive backlog so being patient pays off.
I also find that the quality of the FOSS stuff is better and way more configurable. Not hating on anyone that does pirate software or prefers proprietary stuff, to each their own
Much prefer to use FOSS where I can.
Most people absoljutely do not ‘need’ photoshop or MS Office, but are too lazy to try out free alternatives. Sure they don’t offer 100% of the features, but for most home users they are more than enough What are people using Word for at home anyway? Creating a CV once every few years - its not like they are knocking out documents day after day.
I just use FOSS.
Media I pirate, but there’s nearly always decent FOSS alternative for proprietary software
FOSS over piracy for sure. While the UI and/or functionality is not often as good as the proprietary option with FOSS apps, I feel a lot more comfortable using them because they are free and you can see what’s going on with them better.
Except for games I use FOSS on my Linux desktop and on my Android phone. The FOSS alternative is often better than the proprietary software.
What kind of FOSS software can you get for your android?
F-Droid has tons of good apps!
Edit: I don’t pirate the mentioned software.
I’d love to use FOSS exclusively, but it’s frankly impossible under certain conditions.
Acrobat is a must. Alternatives such as Evince or their back-end library can’t handle the following situations:
Besides, if anything is wrong, you’re on the hook for not using Acrobat.
Microsoft Office is a must.
Adobe is a must.
You face similar problems to Adobe with alternatives, such as:
Overall, I’d love to, but can’t. FOSS isn’t good enough.
You’re doing it wrong. PDF with embedded javascript is a nightmare and it still doesn’t make PDF equal to excel.
Better generate your documents with your favourite HTML templating engine from your DB and convert them to simple PDF in the last step.
Only had that experience with badly designed, macro ridden documents which there’s no excuse for anyway nowadays. I use a lot of print templates (various label printers) and it works flawlessly.
Also, exporting a non MS file format usually imports fine in LibreOffice, even with complex documents.
The ability to quickly edit PDF makes it the office suite of my choice.
Yeah, but if your boss or client sends you a document that doesn’t work you’re not going to tell them “Uh well this is a badly formed document and you shouldn’t embed scripts and it’s your fault that my FOSS alternative application can’t work with this”. At least I hope you’re not.
Of course I do and I expect my employees to report such incidents to IT. Such documents are common attack vectors.
In my experience, customers are not aware of failing interoperability or possible security threats and often grateful for such hints.
There’s a reason why libreoffice (and I guess other office suits aswell), evince or antivirus show a big, fat warning when opening such documents. Surely there are cases were macros are useful or necessary, but if they have to leave the company, you’re doing it wrong.
This talk might be interesting for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F2xMw3987I
About 20 years ago, I saw this exact same discussion on mozillazine. Everyone was raving about FOSS being nicer, friendlier, and more convenient, and how piracy is bothersome.
Then this guy posted a reply, to the tune of “Yeah, and now imagine your entire OS was like that… you should try it.”
A little later I did, and never looked back. For me, FOSS is convenience.
I use Arch btw.
If I have a nice FOSS alternative that will fulfill my needs, then I will always prioritize FOSS. If not, then I pirate the proprietary option.