All Things Microsoft > Microsoft Software
I have a diferent point of view
worker201:
Couple points:
1. Take a good long look at your software licenses. They are unlike any other contract ever produced. When you pay your money to Microsoft or Adobe or Macromedia or Apple, you are not purchasing software. You are not even paying money for a binary distribution. You are paying money to use the software. The license does not give you "ownership" over anything. License do not reflect the cost of material goods. They are more like rent, and your license agreement has hundreds of ways to take their software back if they don't like how you treat it. This is, unfortunately, the favored business model.
2. I have a close friend who is an officer in the Ecuadorian Navy. He is in charge of all oceanic mapping, and he has been around the world chasing down sonar and making measurements. He has told me that in the rest of the world, especially South America and Africa, Windows is considered rare. Only in the US do people use Windows. I kinda got the impression that most people used late model minicomputers, or early PC clones running god-knows-what - Solaris or OS/2 or HP/UX or something. In the US, windows has been marketed as part of the so-called "paperless office" that never actually appeared, and is mostly used by secretaries and junior executives. Other countries can't afford a computer for every single member of a company's staff. Therefore Windows is not a dominating force in their markets. I think that someone (we) should encourage them to stay away from Windows forever.
Anyway, my Mac is still my Mac. I will probably buy Tiger, and my next primary computer (2-3 yrs from now) will probably be a Mac. But at the office and at the bars, I tell everyone FSF.
flap:
quote:Whether or not I have the source code for a program, I am still its owner. I'm the owner of its binary distribution. Your argument is slightly weak (though I understand, and even agree to a certain extent). As a developer owning the source code may be complete ownership to you, but to the average consumer they could care less.
--- End quote ---
I doubt that. Anyone who has ever had to turn down the opportunity to help other people out by giving them copies of their proprietary software, because the law (and technological anti-copying measures) prohibits them from copying it, will have noticed that they only have limited rights over the software they're using.
Claris:
quote:Originally posted by insomnia:
What a nice community.
Give us your money and you're part of it.
[ September 07, 2004: Message edited by: insomnia ]
--- End quote ---
By God, you're right! How dare we buy things! :rolleyes:
flap:
You're not "buying" anything. You're renting a limited right to use something you don't own.
Aloone_Jonez:
quote:Originally posted by flap:
You're not "buying" anything. You're renting a limited right to use something you don't own.
--- End quote ---
So what's so bad about renting something?
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version