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Sign of the times for OpenSource software?

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wraith808:
Taking the devil's advocate position:

The 7-zip vs. commercial is actually disingenous, because the easier route would be to just use Windows.  You might counter with the Linux argument, but you've already gone out of the way to go the Linux route- no matter what else you might say about it, it's *not* as easy to install as Windows.

For the paint.net vs photoshop example-  If you need the facilities of photoshop, then paint.net (as good of a program as it is) won't fit the bill.  (And of course, there's that whole bit with FOSS that I don't agree with that makes Paint.NET not free software... but that's a tangent)

I do, however, get what you're saying as far as there is a happy convergence at times, which is why I said usually.  However, I think that the usually still applies.

Renegade:
That's one nasty Devil~! :D

For the Windows ZIP utility... It's so poor and awkward to use that I wouldn't consider it worth using under any but the most dire circumstances. It just takes too long to use - it's miserable. The most usable one I've used (and I've used a LOT of them), is still ALZip - it's just all that much easier to use. But it isn't FLOSS - it's freeware.

For Paint.NET vs. Photoshop - that's why I specified for regular people. It's more than enough for *most* people. But, like you said, if you need more, then it just doesn't cut it. (I still love my Photoshop~!)

And yes - for convenience/time/money, it's often easier and faster to go for commercial software as in some spaces the FLOSS software that's available is simply too miserable to use. I'm not a command line fan... at all. If people want to prove just how "hard-core" they are, why don't they stop using human languages and just start typing in 1's and 0's. :P (The command line has a time and place, but those situations are becoming fewer and fewer.)

iphigenie:
Most "professional FLOSS software" lacks a good QA. At least the software I tried so far.
-Tuxman (November 09, 2012, 09:17 AM)
--- End quote ---

That is a challenge of the volunteer nature of many projects & the attribution of status and respect. Because in the industry QA is considered a lower status job (as is support and documentation), then in a project of a volunteer nature people would much rather do higher status tasks. This is one of the reasons why methodologies which bake more of the documentation and QA process in with development are especially valuable.

Projects which change this dynamic (either having QA provided by a company as a donation, roping in users en-masse for QA, or changing the dynamics and status balance with "marathons" or better recognition for QA) end up beating commercial software.

Tuxman:
Projects which change this dynamic (either having QA provided by a company as a donation, roping in users en-masse for QA, or changing the dynamics and status balance with "marathons" or better recognition for QA) end up beating commercial software.
-iphigenie (November 10, 2012, 01:35 AM)
--- End quote ---
Are there any?

Renegade:
Projects which change this dynamic (either having QA provided by a company as a donation, roping in users en-masse for QA, or changing the dynamics and status balance with "marathons" or better recognition for QA) end up beating commercial software.
-iphigenie (November 10, 2012, 01:35 AM)
--- End quote ---
Are there any?
-Tuxman (November 10, 2012, 06:02 AM)
--- End quote ---

Does Apache count?

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