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.
What do you do?
I use FOSS whenever possible.
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
I hate proprietary stuff, but sometimes Proprietary is the best option. IDA and Binja have features that Ghidra and Curtter lack, Charles Proxy and Fiddler have more features than mitmproxy, IntelliJ is just better than Eclipese or VSCodium, Autocad and most of the Autodesk suite have no FOSS counterparts. On the flip side, you have Notepad++ that’s better than Sublime, x64dbg is my favorite debugger, and I’ve been using Lunacy for photo editing recently over the multiple m0nkrus packs I have in my torrent client, and Blender is better in a lot of scenarios than Maya or whatever else.
Absolutely grade-A username, my dude. Also, if you haven’t, consider joining us at !patientgamers@sh.itjust.works or !patientgamers@lemmy.ml. I only just learned about one of those because of some kind of new autocomplete feature for federated communities.
I should go.
Paid Software Experience:
- “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!
Much like yourself I always try and use FOSS first and haven’t pirated software since my teena
🎵 FOSS FOSS FOSS, FOSS it up! FOSS FOSS FOSS, FOSS it up! 🎵
