4 ms·

>For now, that's the entire collaboration component. And LaTeX has this for free? It's separated concerns, I think the analogy is Overleaf and LaTeX but just h

by moelf 1y ago

>For now, that's the entire collaboration component. And LaTeX has this for free? It's separated concerns, I think the analogy is Overleaf and LaTeX but just happened to be made by the same group of folks, it doesn't have to go down the monetization-at-the-cost-of-your-user route.

gucci-on-fleek 1y ago
> And LaTeX has this for free? Yes, Overleaf is both free-as-in-beer [0] and free-as-in-speech [1]. The OSS version is pretty easy to self-host, but it's missing quite a few features from the paid version. I still prefer compiling from the command-line for most of my documents, but I run the self-hosted version for collaboration. [0] https://www.overleaf.com/user/subscription/plans https://www.overleaf.com/user/subscription/plans [1] https://github.com/overleaf/overleaf/ https://github.com/overleaf/overleaf/
- agubelu 1y ago
  Actually I've never understood the "free-as-in-beer" thing. Where is beer free?
  - pedvide 1y ago
    I've always understood "free as in beer" as: if someone hands you a beer and says it's free, you know that you don't have to pay to consume the beer, but that doesn't mean that you also get the recipe, brewing instructions, factory plans, glass making instructions etc. The only thing that is free is the liquid itself, nothing else.
  - mr_mitm 1y ago
    The term was arguably coined by RMS and his full statement was: > “Free software” means software that respects users' freedom and community. Roughly, it means that the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. Thus, “free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech,” not as in “free beer.” https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html Sometimes beer happens to be free, in which case it is referred to as "free beer". It's just an example.
  - diffeomorphism 1y ago
    Lots of occasions, mostly celebrations or campaigns. It even has its own Wikipedia article: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freibier https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freibier
  - poulpy123 1y ago
    often when you are with friends
- kzrdude 1y ago
  The free plan on overleaf only allows collaboration between 2 people. If you have 3 students in your report assignment then you can't use overleaf for free. That sounds like a sign that overleaf is struggling, that they had to make that change. And Typst is more generous there, you can collaborate 3 people with no problem.
  - gucci-on-fleek 1y ago
    > The free plan on overleaf only allows collaboration between 2 people. If you have 3 students in your report assignment then you can't use overleaf for free. Yup. You used to be able to share projects with unlimited people via link sharing, but they annoyingly got rid of that last year [0]. And Overleaf's cheapest plan is still more expensive than a basic VPS, so it's actually cheaper to self-host (which is what I'm doing [1]). > That sounds like a sign that overleaf is struggling, that they had to make that change. Either struggling or realized that they have a captive audience—if your professor requires assignments to be typeset with LaTeX and assigns group projects, there aren't really any other options. [0] https://www.overleaf.com/blog/changes-to-project-sharing https://www.overleaf.com/blog/changes-to-project-sharing [1] https://www.maxchernoff.ca/p/overleaf https://www.maxchernoff.ca/p/overleaf
    - imtringued 1y ago
      Universities pay for Overleaf subscriptions so no student has to spend a dime. Some people can't grasp that Overleaf may be a really good product that has to compete with hundreds of both free and fully open source alternatives.

by moelf 1y ago

gucci-on-fleek 1y ago

> And LaTeX has this for free? Yes, Overleaf is both free-as-in-beer [0] and free-as-in-speech [1]. The OSS version is pretty easy to self-host, but it's missing quite a few features from the paid version. I still prefer compiling from the command-line for most of my documents, but I run the self-hosted version for collaboration. [0] https://www.overleaf.com/user/subscription/plans https://www.overleaf.com/user/subscription/plans [1] https://github.com/overleaf/overleaf/ https://github.com/overleaf/overleaf/

agubelu 1y ago
Actually I've never understood the "free-as-in-beer" thing. Where is beer free?
- pedvide 1y ago
  I've always understood "free as in beer" as: if someone hands you a beer and says it's free, you know that you don't have to pay to consume the beer, but that doesn't mean that you also get the recipe, brewing instructions, factory plans, glass making instructions etc. The only thing that is free is the liquid itself, nothing else.
- mr_mitm 1y ago
  The term was arguably coined by RMS and his full statement was: > “Free software” means software that respects users' freedom and community. Roughly, it means that the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. Thus, “free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech,” not as in “free beer.” https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html Sometimes beer happens to be free, in which case it is referred to as "free beer". It's just an example.
- diffeomorphism 1y ago
  Lots of occasions, mostly celebrations or campaigns. It even has its own Wikipedia article: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freibier https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freibier
- poulpy123 1y ago
  often when you are with friends
kzrdude 1y ago
The free plan on overleaf only allows collaboration between 2 people. If you have 3 students in your report assignment then you can't use overleaf for free. That sounds like a sign that overleaf is struggling, that they had to make that change. And Typst is more generous there, you can collaborate 3 people with no problem.
- gucci-on-fleek 1y ago
  > The free plan on overleaf only allows collaboration between 2 people. If you have 3 students in your report assignment then you can't use overleaf for free. Yup. You used to be able to share projects with unlimited people via link sharing, but they annoyingly got rid of that last year [0]. And Overleaf's cheapest plan is still more expensive than a basic VPS, so it's actually cheaper to self-host (which is what I'm doing [1]). > That sounds like a sign that overleaf is struggling, that they had to make that change. Either struggling or realized that they have a captive audience—if your professor requires assignments to be typeset with LaTeX and assigns group projects, there aren't really any other options. [0] https://www.overleaf.com/blog/changes-to-project-sharing https://www.overleaf.com/blog/changes-to-project-sharing [1] https://www.maxchernoff.ca/p/overleaf https://www.maxchernoff.ca/p/overleaf
  - imtringued 1y ago
    Universities pay for Overleaf subscriptions so no student has to spend a dime. Some people can't grasp that Overleaf may be a really good product that has to compete with hundreds of both free and fully open source alternatives.