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Evolution of a 100% Free Software-Based Publisher
NewsForge (also owned by VA) has a quick and interesting look at the evolution of a 100% free software-based Italian publisher. From the article: "Today, Sovilla acknowledges that choosing a 100% free software workflow complicated his working life. He also notes, however, that a great part of his troubles came from an early start, at a time when programs such as Scribus weren't mature enough yet. Today, he says, the situation has improved considerably, and publishers who are willing to experiment with an alternative software platform can, and should, try it without fear."
At first you do without.
Later you suffer woefully inadequate software.
Later still the features grow but so do the problems.
Finally, the software approaches a point of useability.
Then you look at Windows and see that its software is light-years ahead, is full of features, fast, works like a champ and does not really cost all that much when compared to all the business you lost when wasting time fighting with Linux. Plus added bonus, it is compatible/interoperates with all the other software you wish you had on Linux.
Yea, you can call me a troll but, you know I'm right!!!!
But tax software really should be open. Anything dealing with personal or corporate finances would benefit greatly from being open source. I wouldn't trust software that is proprietary to handle my finances. I still do my taxes by pencil and paper. Some of the tax software is really bad. Installing stuff in the boot sector to make sure you don't make illegal copies. Plus most of it is very overpriced. Taxes are mostly just a spreadsheet where you fill in a couple numbers and it does a bunch of calculations. I'm sure the Open Source community could throw together something. That's definitely and itch that many of us would like to scratch. Certainly better than paying $40 a year for a piece of software you can only use once.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
That's because there isn't a difference. Code that you can't change, modify, or improve is evil.
Haha, thanks for confirming it. I guess you only buy also open source houses, cars, food and so on (so that you can for example buy a tomato and "change it" into chicken meat if you believe that's better for the humanity);