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Every time I come across a paid 30 dollar version of software being sold for macos, I can find a free open source alternative that often works better pretty qui
by kache_ 7y ago
Every time I come across a paid 30 dollar version of software being sold for macos, I can find a free open source alternative that often works better pretty quickly.
- tonyedgecombe 7y agoYet when I look it's mostly buggy, poorly supported and half finished.
- diffeomorphism 7y agoHave you tried paying for the open source software?
- tonyedgecombe 7y agoWhy would I pay for something that's mostly buggy, poorly supported and half finished.
- phkahler 7y agoBecause it's a chicken and egg problem.
- tonyedgecombe 7y agoNot really, there is already well written solid software for the Mac which I do pay for. What would happen if these companies open sourced their software is most users would stop paying and they would be forced out of business. Open source devalues developers work.
- diffeomorphism 7y agoThat is a cop out. It is not "abstract concept devalues", YOU are the one that chooses not to pay.
- Crinus 7y agoWhen something is given out for free, why are you surprised when people take it for free?
- diffeomorphism 7y agoExplicitly not the reason tonyedgecomb gave and not the topic of this subthread.
- tonyedgecombe 7y agoIt was implied in what I said.
- tonyedgecombe 7y agoIt’s not a cop out, it’s the objective reality. I and MOST other people choose not to pay.
- diffeomorphism 7y agoSo that it is not "mostly buggy, poorly supported and half finished".
- dickeytk 7y agoOpen source is better for libraries than applications. I’m happy to pay for software written with open source libraries that works well so I can support developers like myself.
- NullPrefix 7y agoCannot tell if you are referring to FOSS or $30 software.
- bananasquash 7y agofreeware and people like you have killed indie development. Great software should be paid for. Unless or cures cancer or solves humanity’s issues, it should not he made available for free. Otherwise the author of a paid version is forced into office jobs because some idiot makes a free clone just to have something on their cv.
- helpPeople 7y ago'The best business man serves the communal good.' I'd be curious to see a survey of founders of FOSS and hear their take.
- bananasquash 7y agoYou wont find too many, as most are either contract workers or just volunteers, because “we want free software” doesn't really translate to pay for hard work and dedication.
- mugsie 7y ago> because “we want free software” doesn't really translate to pay for hard work and dedication. That is one hell of a hot take. RedHat, SUSE, Canonical, would all probably disagree. (also, fwiw, so would I - I have been working on Open Source software for 5+ years, and have been paid for it for the entire time) > as most are either contract workers or just volunteers The linux kernel called, said something about having a large amount of fully paid, long term staff. I get it, you don't like free software - but there is plenty of free software that people are paid to maintain and develop, and it has been a great benefit to software development as a result. Even paid for software is probably using some open source components, (runtimes, languages, compilers, libraries to name a few of them).
- bananasquash 7y agoThese are too few from the massive list of open source software out there. For almost any piece of technical software there is a free clone for it. I like free software, as in free to read the code, but not necessarily freeware.
- Karunamon 7y agoThat’s funny, every time I come across some piece of unsupported free software, I can usually find a $30 paid alternative that looks better, probably runs better, and someone will answer my questions about it, no matter how stupid they might be.
- modzu 7y agopart of the reason for this is it costs money to distribute apps for apple devices. $100 a year and xcode (ie mac hardware) at a minimum.
- oefrha 7y agoI’ll pay you $30 if you point to me a free open source alternative to Sketch that works better. /s if that isn’t obvious. P.S. As a non-designer who’d like to use Sketch maybe once every two to three months, the price is pretty steep.