[clug] Off topic: OS/X USB boot device for 'normal' PC'S

[Neill Cox]

I will admit that calling proprietary software evil is hyperbole, but I do
think this discussion has clearly highlighted some of the problems with
proprietary software.

All proprietary software is developed with the interests of the developer or
rights owner, not the user.

This is more and more of a problem - there ase so many examples of
proprietary software that acts contrary to the interests of the purchaser.
I'll refrain from listing examples (it's so hard to stop), but it irks me
that software I or my clients pay for is usually harder to deploy (and it
often doesn't work that well either) than software I can get for free .

I think it's *really* important to respect commercial licenses and to
highlight the advantages to users of free software, particularly in
licensing.

If I had to pick the one thing that really irritates me at the moment it's
that Microsoft are determined that I should buy Vista to put on any new
computers, but the apps my clients run either work better under XP or don't
work at all under Vista.

I'll try and refrain from using "evil" in the future :)  How about
"irritating, hard to deploy, restrictive, holding you to ransom"?

Cheers,
Neill



On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 11:53 AM, Mike Carden <mike.carden at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 11:30 AM, Robert Edwards <bob at cs.anu.edu.au>
> wrote:
> > "what the vast majority of computer users want to do"
> > (sorry for quoting you, Michael).
>
> No need to apologise Bob. You're right. "What the vast majority of
> computer users want to do" has nothing at all to do with the point
> under discussion.
> I merely used it because:
>
> 1. I disagree with the characterisation of proprietary software as evil
> and,
> 2. I wanted a chance to quote P T Barnum.
>
> ;-)
>
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> MC
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