Yes @pdecker, you were right.
No, it was not. I was wrong about the question. See screen shot.
5 Likes
I have a few ogg files - not many… Mostly mp3… But also a truckload of FLAC… Sometimes I don’t even notice, Sayonara just plays the music - and sometimes I look up and realise - it’s playing some music stored in ogg format…
My digital music collection is about 1.2 TB… Started collecting, ripping, accumulating around 1996 or 7…
When I rip CDs these days - straight to FLAC… If I want to lsten to that on my phone - I have a shell script to convert a folder with an album in FLAC format - to 320 kbps mp3… That shell script uses ffmpeg - the “swiss army knife” of CLI tools for digital audio and video formats - ffmpeg and imagemagick are amazing, free, OSS CLI “swiss army knives”… Note : my shell script doesn’t directly call “ffmpeg” - it calls “ffpb” a python script that does a quick ETA check, sends the same arguments to ffmpeg, and runs ffmpeg but shows a progress indicator…
FLAC is non-proprietary - hence why Apple choose another format for their lossless music (ALAC)…
Just read up on the licensing for mp3 - seems the patent expired in EU around 2012, and in the USA around 2017… But the jury is still out - and it seems some companies / orgs are still testing the waters about patent / copyright infringement of software that uses mp3 format…
I think maybe Ubuntu, at least, have stopped issuing the warning and prompt during installation - “Do you want to install proprietary codes for mp3 etc etc…?” and you had to check a box to say “OK”… I don’t recall seeing it recently… But I do remember seeing it every time I installed Ubuntu since I first tried it out around 20 years ago?
5 Likes
Thanks. After @pdecker’s post and inspecting what’s inside those repos, I concluded that’s unrelated.
1 Like
I think mint still does ask, but just tick yes never given it any thought as without it listening to music fails and you have to do it later anyway
4 Likes
I could swear Mint use to ask this question. When I went thru the screens for an install to take a snap shot, I did not see it. This was on a live USB of Mint 22.2
4 Likes
Just now on debian ?
I run 4 paid-for programs (one is now available free) in Debian. I do that because the available linux options don’t meet my needs. I would not ask for help on them here, I would probably get a lecture instead.
3 Likes
Oh, yeah. Happy New Year all. (probably very late for some).
3 Likes
I would hope not but suspect you could be right. If they meet your needs and you are happy then go for it. Personal choice.
1 Like
Very often paid software has its own community and a support site, with much more focused support than you’d get from here.
2 Likes
Couldn’t agree more.
3 Likes
You paid for it, run it where you wish!!!
2 Likes
If the licensing allows it.
1 Like
Proprietary licenses quite often give you the right to use the software for its specified purpose on one machine. Some proprietary software licenses come down to strangulation contracts, for which it’s hard to opt out (looking at you Adobe).
If you’re so happy with proprietary software, please take a moment to read their license and take a moment to think whether it’s fair and you’d actually want to comply with said license.
You don’t want to comply with said license? Then you have no right to use said software.
3 Likes
That may be the legal position, but it is not always ethically correct for someone to be able to use a licence to restrict my freedom.
2 Likes
Who reads the 6 or more pages of the license agreement? I thought most people just click “Accept”.
4 Likes
Ethics went out of the window the moment money got involved.
Perhaps it’s time those software manufacturers get sued into oblivion for their license practices.
Or to set up a campaign to tell people to read those licenses before they buy/subscribe.
Or a website could be set up to summarize the licenses of various pieces of software.
3 Likes
All of my Windows programs run in virtual machines. They are mostly portable. I don’t remember names but I have run into a Windows app or 2 that will not run in a VM.
Ethics? Ha. You can find all the help you want to run Apple software in a Intel based VM. Against their Eula.
1 Like
If I bought the software, I usually have one license key to use!!! If I use that key and then try to reuse the key, then yes, I am on the wrong side of the fence!!! Like using a Windows key, and trying to use it on two different Computers, sometimes it will and sometimes it will not!!!
3 Likes
Exactly…
If I have an issue with Symless Synergy KVM - which I have pro-license for - I either log a ticket, they’re reasonably responsive - or post something on their forums… Same / similar with ResilioSync…
TrueNAS / FreeNAS - is “free” and not exactly “proprietary” - they also have forums - but some of their users can be quite nasty - so I’ve always been reticent… But I wouldn’t ask a question here - I’d use their forums…
I alway kinda hate it when some cross-platform software I use, and paid for, suddenly announce a free “plan” - that happened with Resilio Sync - you can now get all the “pro” features for free - and with that change - they stopped offering FreeBSD binaries for V3.x (thankfully the 2.x versions still sync with 3.x software).
I do sometimes “break the rules” by running software I “own” in environments that requires a different license… Recently did that on Resilio Sync - tried to get the Windows version running on Windows servers I RDP to (for work)… and I also have a licensed (to me) copy of MobaXterm - but I’m supposed to use a Corporate license the way I use it - but I don’t care…
4 Likes