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Sign of the times for OpenSource software?
Renegade:
It all boils down to "interest". Money is a STRONG interest. Philosophical motivations are also very STRONG interests, and often trump money.
The problem comes when people don't have enough basic resources, i.e. money.
Another motivation is the size of a user base. That's a strong motivator, but usually also goes along with money.
The real question is "what keeps developers' interest and keeps them involved?"
Check IIS vs. Apache numbers. Dead give away that FLOSS can win.
Complaining about Open Office (or whatever) is pretty much a wash. Very few people *NEED* anything more than what Open Office offers. Very few. That just boils down to gear lust.
I receive office documents that have a special kind of internal markup that I am forced to use MS Office for. I'm a very rare exception.
Very few people need something like Samplitude or Pro Tools. Audacity is more than enough for the vast majority of what people need.
Notepad++ is stellar. I don't know of anyone that needs a text editor in the same class that is commercial. I know I don't. (I use a commercial editor because I've used the same one for over 10 years and just don't feel like switching.)
How many more examples can we come up with? Virtually boundless.
How many examples of use cases where a commercial application worked better? Similarly boundless.
Often the question is why use a Porche when a Volkswagen will do the same job?
Tuxman:
Very few people *NEED* anything more than what Open Office offers.-Renegade (November 09, 2012, 08:52 AM)
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Not "more" but "better quality". Including stability, responsiveness and editing files without scrambling their layout.
Notepad++ is stellar. I don't know of anyone that needs a text editor in the same class that is commercial.-Renegade (November 09, 2012, 08:52 AM)
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You can do quite everything with Notepad too. But would you?
Sometimes N++ just does not feel comfortable enough. (And it has annoying crash bugs in virtually every single version.)
Often the question is why use a Porche when a Volkswagen will do the same job?-Renegade (November 09, 2012, 08:52 AM)
--- End quote ---
Which leads us to the question: Do you want to work at all or do you want to work more efficiently?
Renegade:
Very few people *NEED* anything more than what Open Office offers.-Renegade (November 09, 2012, 08:52 AM)
--- End quote ---
Not "more" but "better quality". Including stability, responsiveness and editing files without scrambling their layout.
Notepad++ is stellar. I don't know of anyone that needs a text editor in the same class that is commercial.-Renegade (November 09, 2012, 08:52 AM)
--- End quote ---
You can do quite everything with Notepad too. But would you?
Sometimes N++ just does not feel comfortable enough. (And it has annoying crash bugs in virtually every single version.)
Often the question is why use a Porche when a Volkswagen will do the same job?-Renegade (November 09, 2012, 08:52 AM)
--- End quote ---
Which leads us to the question: Do you want to work at all or do you want to work more efficiently?
-Tuxman (November 09, 2012, 08:57 AM)
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1) I'm going to give Libre Office a shot again then reply on that.
2) For Notepad++, I have no clue what you're talking about. It seems pretty good. What comparable commercial editor do you use? I use EditPlus.
3) The topic of commercial vs. personal use is a very valid topic. When it comes to commercial use, the amount of effort that goes into doing a task is often of no concern whatsoever. If it were, nobody would ever use Oracle. ;) Human resources vs. computing resources are a very real concern. I think that the topic is pretty broad, and don't want to get into it much further though as it's a deep hole to dive down. I'll let others fight that one out.
Tuxman:
What comparable commercial editor do you use? I use EditPlus.-Renegade (November 09, 2012, 09:03 AM)
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Sublime Text 2.
The topic of commercial vs. personal use is a very valid topic. When it comes to commercial use, the amount of effort that goes into doing a task is often of no concern whatsoever. -Renegade (November 09, 2012, 09:03 AM)
--- End quote ---
OTOH, why would I want to use a non-professional software "personally" when I can use a professional software instead?
Renegade:
What comparable commercial editor do you use? I use EditPlus.-Renegade (November 09, 2012, 09:03 AM)
--- End quote ---
Sublime Text 2.
The topic of commercial vs. personal use is a very valid topic. When it comes to commercial use, the amount of effort that goes into doing a task is often of no concern whatsoever. -Renegade (November 09, 2012, 09:03 AM)
--- End quote ---
OTOH, why would I want to use a non-professional software "personally" when I can use a professional software instead?
-Tuxman (November 09, 2012, 09:12 AM)
--- End quote ---
I checked out Sublime, and it seemed pretty good, but wasn't compelling enough for me to switch.
For "non-professional" software, that's a bit of a rough thing to say. A lot of FLOSS software is made by professionals. If I create some software, and GPL it, it's still "professional" software.
However, there is another sense of the word there where the software is designed for professional use.
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