Is it just me, or are people more often discussing proprietary software here?
First, there’s the discussion about the various competitors of MS Office. While informative, a lot of the alternatives mentioned were proprietary.
Then there was the discussion about Tintero, a writing application. While this was exactly what the doctor ordered for me, it still unsettles me that a proprietary application is given a platform of promotion here, a place where we discuss FOSS.
Finally, there’s the discussion of computer games. While I’m not opposed to computer games, I feel this is not the place to discuss proprietary computer games.
I’m seeing a pattern emerging. A pattern of distraction from the purpose of this community. Even though, I’m not saying proprietary software is bad or evil, I just think it’s not in it’s place here.
Yeah, Nah (it’s an Aussie thing - to say “yeah, nah…” - which basically means “no” but in a drawn out laconic way of saying “no”…
I’ve been on this forum daily since around 2018 - and floated around it earlier… and been using Linux since 1995…
I don’t have a problem with proprietary software… Doesn’t bother me… Nor does people using the name “Linux” instead of “GNU/Linux” as RMS would insist we all follow, bother me…
Heaps of us are probably using proprietary blobs in drivers that are running on our Linux systems… I think I’m probably using proprietary blobs to decode / code the digital music I listen to… Anyone here use OGG format? Yeah - probably not…
I use a couple of proprietary software products, cross platform :
Symless Synergy KVM
Resilio Sync
and I paid for both…
And yeah - there’s only a few decent games out there that are OSS… they’re “ok” but they’re not great - impressive perhaps for OSS / volunteer / community developed - e.g. “0 AD”… Tux Kart? And there’s a few open source game engines, e.g. “ScummVM” - but - those latter are mostly for playing propietary games anyway…
Seriously - I love to game and I’m not going to lose sleep over them being proprietary… Not a huge fan of capitalism, but cutting edge top-shelf game titles need money thrown at them… and I’m glad…
You have a point, but it is a fact of life that FOSS is almost non functional without support from a few proprietary blobs.
Debian tried to suppress proprietary code, and failed
When it comes to proprietary and non-proprietary alternatives, I think it is OK for the forum to look at when a FOSS app will do the job, and when it cant compete (Eg CAD).
There is lots of FOSS code written by companies and given a GPL or similar licence ( eg virt-manager)… In a sense that is proprietary code too… we dont seem to object to that because it is open source proprietary code.
The one thing I agree with you strongly on , is that we do not want the forum to become a promotion platform for non-FOSS code. We will all keep an eye on that… but be realistic… we cant stop people talking about Win11.
We need to react to questions asked and again 90 % of the market use this and i suspect we have more experiance to be able to answer than perhaps a none standard where only 1 of us uses.
I understand that propriety software has its place – I use Tintero and OnlyOffice, f.e. .
For Tintero there is simply no replacement for me. At the moment it’s free, supports all the platforms I use, and ticks all my boxes. Someone finally thought of what I wanted and, if I hadn’t heard about it here, I would have never heard about it. So please don’t assume I’m ungrateful.
Thing is, shouldn’t we be making sure feasable FOSS programs are discussed here?
I did not know you had that experience.
Yes, it would be out of place here.
The most we ever get asked is how to dual boot Win and Linux.
I have no Win knowledge at all … I came from BSD world.
You might notice there is provision in the categories that Abhishek set, for discussions of non- computing topics… but we dont tend to use it … we drift in normal topics.
There are many articles on It’s Foss talking about non-FOSS programs. They normally have a disclaimer stating that “although it is not FOSS, it runs on Linux and is of interest to our readers”, or something along those lines.
Even if a program is not FOSS, using it on Linux can help the entire platform by making it feasible to run Linux for a user that requires a non-FOSS program.
Proprietary software is part of computer reality. To ignore it is to insert our heads in the sand. FOSS includes the responsibility to see the entire computing environment.
Proprietary software can be FOSS. For example the Linux VM program virt-manager was written entirely by IBM, but they made it open source and free.
We should not forget contributions to FOSS from the commercial world. The word ‘proprietary’ tends to hide them
I agree, and that is why my go-to PC runs W11!!! Making Linux to run proprietary software, is nothing more than piracy, unless I have purchased the software!!!
I think so. We talked numerous times about Davinci Resolve here. If something, that’s proprietary.
Sure, yes.
As I listen a lot to Spotify, not conciously, but I use the OGG format, as it streams music in this format, so under the hood it’s playing OGG.
I agree to certain level. Hyping Win#XX# or asking special questions regarding only MS products irritate me too. On the other hand I would not ban questions regarding Windows if it has something relating Linux. Dual boot maybe and such… …how to prevent Windows to kill GRUB or how to repair GRUB if Win ruined it, etc.
Excuse me, I find this bullshit.
What to buy on a free proprietary software? Intel Wifi driver for example. Or Nvidia driver. Or FreeOffice from Softmaker. Or Davinci Resolve (the non-studio)?
The are free (of charge), proprietary, run on Linux, no need to buy.
What is the piracy in running them on Linux?
