As long as you realize that your continuing to refer to adware, trial versions, and spyware-laden stuff as freeware isn't helping the issue any, fair enough -- there isn't a central location for true freeware, though one would be useful.
That said, a case can be made that anything using the GPL isn't truely "free" either, since there are still limitations attached (though the limitations are on the distribution and use of source, NOT in the use of the software from an end-user standpoint). Or the Apache license. Or any license, with the possible exception of the BSD license.
Truely free software is released into the public domain with no strings attached. I haven't seen a whole lot of that, and people you would think would support such an idea are already wrapped up in their own politically-driven licenses.
I think you're confusing "freeware" with "adware" or "trial versions" -- Everything I've done that wasn't done for work gets released as "freeware", no ads, no time-limits or missing features, just no source code included.
There's a lot of true freeware out there thats not open source -- if I were you I wouldn't be so dismissive of closed-source software since you might miss good stuff for the sake of ideology. Then again, if the ideology behind open source is worth more to you, I can respect that choice as well.
All I ask is that you don't lump all closed source together.
"might favor or even seek out GPL software over freeware"
Over freeware? To a geek, maybe. But geeks are already aware of the GPL, AND the flamewar surrounding GPL3. To a typical clueless end user, they're both free, and beyond that, they don't give a damn.
I'm convinced the world is already so far down the toilet that it can't be saved, and therefore it wouldn't be right to have any children. Which is why I'd rather spend my money and time doing things that help in the "here and now" instead of "in the future" which might or might not exist (especially with the current bunch of monkeys running governments with nuclear weapons around the world)
Between propriatary or nothing at all, its understandable why the project picked propriatary.
Note to RMS fanboys: Life is full of COMPROMISES. Sometimes you have to take a little bit of the "bad" to accomplish something good. Having RMS out there spewing because of things like this does NOTHING to help people's opinion of him, OR HIS IDEOLOGY.
So spending my money, and time, helping local charities (not the magical-man-in-sky type though), instead of throwing it away funding lawyers for the EFF is being a consumer sheep? Thats funny.
I'm about as far from a consumer sheep as you can get. No iPod, no other mp3 player, no TV, no trendy overpriced clothes, no sports car, no "as seen on TV" gadgets, etc. Hell, my PC is 5 years old, and probably won't be replaced for another year or two. None of this is because I can't afford it - I just don't have a need to follow the pack and buy buy buy.
In addition, I don't even really care about DRM -- I don't listen to music or watch tv or movies if I can help it and I prefer books to reading anything online. Exactly WHAT part of DRM hurts me? DRM hurts the consumer sheep. Since I think music, tv, and movies are all useless drivel that the masses are better off NOT having, anything that hurts their ability to see or listen to it I'm not going to argue against.
As I said, if you want to throw your money at the EFF, good for you. Just don't take a "high and mighty" attitude when people disgree that its the best use of their money.
Well said, but your views won't be very popular around here.
I'm firmly in the camp of "if I'm going to give something away, I'm not going to attach strings telling people what they can or cannot do with it" which is why my stuff gets released with the BSD license, or just released into the public domain without any licensing at all.
When I'm looking for an open-source bit of code to build off of or to incorporate into mine, the first thing I do is make sure its NOT GPL code. 10 foot pole, and all that.
The american public, in general, doesn't give a crap about the EFF. Hell, the american public, in general, doesn't give a crap about anything other than what TV show is on and which team is going to win whatever sport they follow.
Industry doesn't care about the EFF because as long as they keep churning out "oooh shiney" for the general public (the above idiots who simply don't care), the general public will continue to bend over and take it.
The government doesn't give a crap about the EFF - the legislators are bought and paid for by industry, the courts are clueless about technology so they listen to whoever can tell the better story (hint, its not the EFF) regardless of the facts, and the administration can't even SPELL technology, much less understand anyone's concerns about it.
As for preventing the creation of a police state, look around, in many places you're already too late. The general public wants their illusion of safety, and they don't care what it takes as long as they have thier tv shows.
In any case, if you want to throw money at the EFF, great, its your money -- you earned it, spend it how you want. I'd rather spend mine on things that will have actual benefits for people instead of chasing hopeless ideals.
I'm too lazy to look it up, but there IS the case of the man who's been sitting in jail for 11+ years for contempt of court because he won't (if they exist) or can't (if they don't) produce account numbers in a rather nasty divorce.
I'd argue that the courts ability to toss someone in jail for YEARS for "contempt" which is a rather blanket term that gets used for anything from being late to court to sleeping in court to just having a tone of voice the judge doesn't like, gives them a power that no other branch has, and one with ZERO checks on it.
Shoulda thrown OJ and his lawyers in jail for "contempt of court" for something -- maybe "hiring annoying lawyers" and "bad rhyming".:)
Knowing what department you're "supposed" to be pissed off at is kind of important. You know. FACTS. Getting those right helps your cause (whatever it may be) a lot more than incessant whining thats full of mistakes.
I can't fathom why either, except that Blizzard seems to do what the 12 and 13 year olds want -- the ones that spend all day playing WoW or bitching in the forums. Which is why they've been focused on "end-game" and 40-man instances.
The casual player isn't heard, because we don't take the time to fill thread after thread after thread bitching about things.
I guess my point (sorry for the slightly-off-topic rant) is that its not the botters, its the damned kids that can't understand the concept of casual gaming.
They *CAN* coexist, but they don't always, and usually because of the actions of the power levelers.
I play a little world of warcraft -- about 2-3 hours each weekend. I mostly bum around, do the more interesting quests (the ones with some semblence of story behind them rather than the generic "go kill X of monster Y") and explore.
This has been working great, except for one thing -- now that my main character is nearing lvl 50, I'm CONSTANTLY being harassed with guild invites, raid invites, and party invites, because people want me to raid with them, or run instances with them, or hit battlegrounds with them, so they can have that extra 0.0000001% chance of getting some piece of uber-armor by killing monster Z one more time. Its not jealousy at all, its frustration with being harassed with invites simply because my toon is high(ish) level.
What MMORPGS need is a "leave-me-the-hell-alone" mode - the ability to automatically, without even asking me, reject party invitations, guild invitations, etc. Let me turn it on and off according to my mood -- if I want to run with a small group that thinks alike, let me do that -- if I feel like solo questing for a bit, let me do that without being interrupted every 2 minutes with "so-and-so has invited you to join whatever raid/guild/party" popups.
Re:I've seen this posted for at least 3 weeks.
on
The Day Against DRM
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· Score: 1
Most of the sites I visit would be hard pressed to work an anti-DRM-day into their material.
When the courts here in the US don't have the balls to stand up to microsoft and force them to play nicely with others, the fact that they're a monopoly doesn't carry any weight.
For what its worth, I hope the EU courts *DO* smack them, and smack them hard, since the US courts won't do it.
While I agree with you, most end users don't have enough clout for that to matter, and the fact is that most users are apathetic enough that you won't convince them to leave MS in any significant number.
Its like me avoiding shopping at walmart. I like to think that it hurts their bottom line by taking my dollars elsewhere, but I know that in the end it doesn't really matter since there are many, many more that will gladly keep throwing their money at walmart.
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As long as you realize that your continuing to refer to adware, trial versions, and spyware-laden stuff as freeware isn't helping the issue any, fair enough -- there isn't a central location for true freeware, though one would be useful.
That said, a case can be made that anything using the GPL isn't truely "free" either, since there are still limitations attached (though the limitations are on the distribution and use of source, NOT in the use of the software from an end-user standpoint). Or the Apache license. Or any license, with the possible exception of the BSD license.
Truely free software is released into the public domain with no strings attached. I haven't seen a whole lot of that, and people you would think would support such an idea are already wrapped up in their own politically-driven licenses.
I think you're confusing "freeware" with "adware" or "trial versions" -- Everything I've done that wasn't done for work gets released as "freeware", no ads, no time-limits or missing features, just no source code included.
There's a lot of true freeware out there thats not open source -- if I were you I wouldn't be so dismissive of closed-source software since you might miss good stuff for the sake of ideology. Then again, if the ideology behind open source is worth more to you, I can respect that choice as well.
All I ask is that you don't lump all closed source together.
"might favor or even seek out GPL software over freeware"
Over freeware? To a geek, maybe. But geeks are already aware of the GPL, AND the flamewar surrounding GPL3. To a typical clueless end user, they're both free, and beyond that, they don't give a damn.
Well, there's the difference....
I'm convinced the world is already so far down the toilet that it can't be saved, and therefore it wouldn't be right to have any children. Which is why I'd rather spend my money and time doing things that help in the "here and now" instead of "in the future" which might or might not exist (especially with the current bunch of monkeys running governments with nuclear weapons around the world)
Different outlooks on life, really.
Wow, modded troll because I don't like the GPL, but instead prefer a license thats truely free. Who would have figured that one.
Between propriatary or nothing at all, its understandable why the project picked propriatary.
Note to RMS fanboys: Life is full of COMPROMISES. Sometimes you have to take a little bit of the "bad" to accomplish something good. Having RMS out there spewing because of things like this does NOTHING to help people's opinion of him, OR HIS IDEOLOGY.
So spending my money, and time, helping local charities (not the magical-man-in-sky type though), instead of throwing it away funding lawyers for the EFF is being a consumer sheep? Thats funny.
I'm about as far from a consumer sheep as you can get. No iPod, no other mp3 player, no TV, no trendy overpriced clothes, no sports car, no "as seen on TV" gadgets, etc. Hell, my PC is 5 years old, and probably won't be replaced for another year or two. None of this is because I can't afford it - I just don't have a need to follow the pack and buy buy buy.
In addition, I don't even really care about DRM -- I don't listen to music or watch tv or movies if I can help it and I prefer books to reading anything online. Exactly WHAT part of DRM hurts me? DRM hurts the consumer sheep. Since I think music, tv, and movies are all useless drivel that the masses are better off NOT having, anything that hurts their ability to see or listen to it I'm not going to argue against.
As I said, if you want to throw your money at the EFF, good for you. Just don't take a "high and mighty" attitude when people disgree that its the best use of their money.
Well said, but your views won't be very popular around here.
I'm firmly in the camp of "if I'm going to give something away, I'm not going to attach strings telling people what they can or cannot do with it" which is why my stuff gets released with the BSD license, or just released into the public domain without any licensing at all.
When I'm looking for an open-source bit of code to build off of or to incorporate into mine, the first thing I do is make sure its NOT GPL code. 10 foot pole, and all that.
Except buying a PC doesn't mean buying a PC with Windows. There are plenty of places that will sell you a PC with no OS, with Redhat or Suse, etc.
Its the difference between an appliance (TiVo) and a general purpose computer (the PC).
The american public, in general, doesn't give a crap about the EFF. Hell, the american public, in general, doesn't give a crap about anything other than what TV show is on and which team is going to win whatever sport they follow.
Industry doesn't care about the EFF because as long as they keep churning out "oooh shiney" for the general public (the above idiots who simply don't care), the general public will continue to bend over and take it.
The government doesn't give a crap about the EFF - the legislators are bought and paid for by industry, the courts are clueless about technology so they listen to whoever can tell the better story (hint, its not the EFF) regardless of the facts, and the administration can't even SPELL technology, much less understand anyone's concerns about it.
As for preventing the creation of a police state, look around, in many places you're already too late. The general public wants their illusion of safety, and they don't care what it takes as long as they have thier tv shows.
In any case, if you want to throw money at the EFF, great, its your money -- you earned it, spend it how you want. I'd rather spend mine on things that will have actual benefits for people instead of chasing hopeless ideals.
well, that went without saying.
Then again, with enough shielding of the premises, I guess you could get away with running wifi.
I'm too lazy to look it up, but there IS the case of the man who's been sitting in jail for 11+ years for contempt of court because he won't (if they exist) or can't (if they don't) produce account numbers in a rather nasty divorce.
:)
I'd argue that the courts ability to toss someone in jail for YEARS for "contempt" which is a rather blanket term that gets used for anything from being late to court to sleeping in court to just having a tone of voice the judge doesn't like, gives them a power that no other branch has, and one with ZERO checks on it.
Shoulda thrown OJ and his lawyers in jail for "contempt of court" for something -- maybe "hiring annoying lawyers" and "bad rhyming".
Don't like the phone company because of something it did? Switch, or do without.
Don't want the FBI monitoring your wifi networks? Don't use wifi, run cables (not foolproof by any means, but much harder to intercept than wifi).
They may not be options you like, but it IS a choice. Make yours and accept the consequences.
Go vote any idiots you don't like out of office, and put in idiots you DO like. We do have an election in a month - use it.
Knowing what department you're "supposed" to be pissed off at is kind of important. You know. FACTS. Getting those right helps your cause (whatever it may be) a lot more than incessant whining thats full of mistakes.
I'm not going to be as short and concise as you were.
Is the EFF good? Maybe.
Is it worth throwing my money at them to throw away on lawsuits that they lose? No.
woah, lets not get crazy here....there's millions of crappy java dev environemnts.
As for picking decent software, I think thats called the "geek's sixth sense"
Thats pretty much my point -- keep it up to date, and be smart about how you use it, and you won't have issues.
For those that are dumb, well, nothing is idiot proof, since the universe keeps building better idiots.
I can't fathom why either, except that Blizzard seems to do what the 12 and 13 year olds want -- the ones that spend all day playing WoW or bitching in the forums. Which is why they've been focused on "end-game" and 40-man instances.
The casual player isn't heard, because we don't take the time to fill thread after thread after thread bitching about things.
I guess my point (sorry for the slightly-off-topic rant) is that its not the botters, its the damned kids that can't understand the concept of casual gaming.
Yeah, I ended up joining one to stop the guild invite spam. Its still annoying that the spam happens though.
But which mod is this that automagically declines party invites? Any suggestions?
Oh I know.....I know....
:)
I was just making sure I wasn't going to get flamed for NOT taking the opportunity to bash IE.
They *CAN* coexist, but they don't always, and usually because of the actions of the power levelers.
I play a little world of warcraft -- about 2-3 hours each weekend. I mostly bum around, do the more interesting quests (the ones with some semblence of story behind them rather than the generic "go kill X of monster Y") and explore.
This has been working great, except for one thing -- now that my main character is nearing lvl 50, I'm CONSTANTLY being harassed with guild invites, raid invites, and party invites, because people want me to raid with them, or run instances with them, or hit battlegrounds with them, so they can have that extra 0.0000001% chance of getting some piece of uber-armor by killing monster Z one more time. Its not jealousy at all, its frustration with being harassed with invites simply because my toon is high(ish) level.
What MMORPGS need is a "leave-me-the-hell-alone" mode - the ability to automatically, without even asking me, reject party invitations, guild invitations, etc. Let me turn it on and off according to my mood -- if I want to run with a small group that thinks alike, let me do that -- if I feel like solo questing for a bit, let me do that without being interrupted every 2 minutes with "so-and-so has invited you to join whatever raid/guild/party" popups.
Most of the sites I visit would be hard pressed to work an anti-DRM-day into their material.
Simpler solution:
Don't click random links or run random crap you get via IM.
Still dump IE though.
When the courts here in the US don't have the balls to stand up to microsoft and force them to play nicely with others, the fact that they're a monopoly doesn't carry any weight.
For what its worth, I hope the EU courts *DO* smack them, and smack them hard, since the US courts won't do it.
While I agree with you, most end users don't have enough clout for that to matter, and the fact is that most users are apathetic enough that you won't convince them to leave MS in any significant number.
Its like me avoiding shopping at walmart. I like to think that it hurts their bottom line by taking my dollars elsewhere, but I know that in the end it doesn't really matter since there are many, many more that will gladly keep throwing their money at walmart.