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Last post Author Topic: RANT: High Software Prices!  (Read 63038 times)

app103

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Re: RANT: High Software Prices!
« Reply #100 on: April 26, 2007, 11:37 AM »
Wordpress, best bet. <-- super simple PHP

How many <?php include('whatever.php'); ?> do they need? That's the only php I know.  :-[

XUL next best. <-- only markup in XML

Still trying to get a grasp on the finer points of XML for scripting a bot for my chatroom. (not doing too well on that) Here is a sample that someone gave me to learn from:
  :huh:

Non-FOSS:
XAML <-- M$'s version of (Java+XML) for GUI
I don't know a lick of java and see above XML comment.
1. People with those skills are gonna be in demand when Redhat and sourceforge.net start their FOSS exchanges. Keep a watch.
Will do.  ;)
2. You should try your hand at Google and Yahoo! Answers
I currently have a 54% best answer rate on Yahoo Answers. And that site is too addictive...I am going to get in a lot of trouble with spending too much of my time there if I am not careful.  :D
(psst.... if you make good money, pass a few Donation Credits here as well ;) ;) )
Unfortunately I am broker than broke and might just have the worst income/expenses ratio on this forum.  :(

Total household income, supporting a family of 3, is about $300/wk...rent $955/month for a 4 room apartment (and that is cheap where I live). I think after doing the math you will see the financial predicament I am in. (yet I do still manage to pass a few credits around when I can)

...and now you know why this rant about software prices really hits me close to home.

leland

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Re: RANT: High Software Prices!
« Reply #101 on: May 01, 2007, 07:15 PM »
Yes, prices are way too high.  I manage a network at a small company and we don't get much for breaks on the prices.  And the ones I do I have to search out.  With Microsoft and Adobe charging such high prices I'm almost feeling the open source and free software route is the best.  and App103, you are so right about the need for money being evil.  I can't believe how much prices just seem to keep going up.  I think much of the problem is corporate greed.  The corporations (notice I did not mention people) are trying their best to take over.  In some ways it seems it's time for "we the people" to fight back, and I guess one of the best ways is running free software and giving up on software from Microsoft, Adobe, etc...  Yes, you have some very good points.  Thanks for this interesting topic.

Leland
:D

Renegade

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Re: RANT: High Software Prices!
« Reply #102 on: May 02, 2007, 07:10 AM »
One of the problems that's been echoed so many times in this thread is about "money" and "evil". For as long as money and making more at any cost (the greedy capitalist thing) is merely viewed as evil or hold some kind of fascination, it will continue. The change that is needed is for people to view that greed not as merely "bad", but as much worse - as vulgar. Then it will no longer be fashionable to charge more simply because you can.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

zridling

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Re: RANT: High Software Prices!
« Reply #103 on: May 02, 2007, 09:29 AM »
To this day, Microsoft encourages piracy of its products. The more users the merrier. Why? The only reason you'd want piracy is lock-in. Lock-in grows the user base and is achieved by none other than proprietary formats. If I can't see the code, then I'm helpless to myself and to others, and soon, a victim of things like WGA and hyper-expensive upgrades. There is no real name for the philosophy of "because we can." That's part of the reason for the success of the biggest software companies, Adobe, Microsoft, Autocad, heck, even SAS. Its very vagueness makes it hard to attack. In actuality, it is not a single entity. It is made up of three main parts.

(1) Corporatism, which is based on the belief that whatever makes money is good — and should never be restrained;

(2) Autocracy, which is the belief in unlimited monopoly. Around the globe, many nations do not bow to Microsoft like we do, nor do they want Microsoft's software. But that doesn't stop Microsoft from wanting its software on every computer, even if they sell Vista for $800 in Denmark and $3 to developing nations;

(3) Open Source/FOSS people are dangerous idiots. And between lobbying, lawsuits, and self-sustaining relationship between helping large corporations make huge profits in return for campaign contributions and support for DMCA, DRM, Patent law, and other policies designed to suffocate and frustrate competitors play a role in the — for lack of a kinder term — Fuck-the-user business strategy (because they can). Open Source software is the biggest threat, period, because it levels the playing field for interoperability and competition. (God forbid we have either of those!)
« Last Edit: May 02, 2007, 09:51 AM by zridling »

Renegade

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Re: RANT: High Software Prices!
« Reply #104 on: May 02, 2007, 10:09 AM »
Open Source/FOSS people are dangerous idiots.

Hahahahaaha~!

Then there's the gorilla with tits!

Zaine! You're killing me!

But as far as open source is concerned, MS has joined the open standards camp, and that's where they are fighting a winning war. They can do standards better than the FOSS community and are proving it. Things like MONO are proving this. The CLR was a BRILLIANT move by MS.

They're attacking again with open standards for MS Office as well. Open standards are a very good thing, and MS knows where things are going. They're fighting back in a very serious way. I certainly am glad that they are doing so, but the reality of the situation is that they are creating standards that are difficult for anyone to meet unless they are very organized.

We'll see how it all plays out though.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

Grorgy

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Re: RANT: High Software Prices!
« Reply #105 on: May 07, 2007, 08:01 PM »
Sad but true, i used star office, which is provided free to students at the university i go to, for a semester but i then went back to M$ office just because of a few little things in the formatting and so on that had taken me an age to figure out in word and i couldnt get to work in star, though i'm pretty sure the functionality was there i just couldnt work it  :-[ and also the documents produced by the teaching types there are all in some form of office document, word or powerpoint.  years of using word at work had paid off for microsoft, and then sending resumes and so on out, everyone uses word.  beaten by the numbers

Josh

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Re: RANT: High Software Prices!
« Reply #106 on: April 01, 2008, 11:36 AM »
So, in an attempt to revive this thread. What does everyone think of the new subscription based windows services that are coming with Windows 7? You pay for the base OS and then addon what you want as far as additional small features.

Darwin

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Re: RANT: High Software Prices!
« Reply #107 on: April 01, 2008, 11:48 AM »
So, in an attempt to revive this thread. What does everyone think of the new subscription based windows services that are coming with Windows 7? You pay for the base OS and then addon what you want as far as additional small features.

My thoughts on this are NSFW or children! I am not a big fan of Apple, but their pricing scheme for OS X is the "way forward" in my opinion. Of course, I may be proven wrong, but I figure that all the proposed scheme for Win 7 is going to do is make getting the full featured version more expensive. I'd rather, and would gladly, pay $100 - $150 as a flat fee for the complete, full featured operating system than pay, say, $75 for a gutted version and then per feature on top of that. Unless they keep the cost of the add-on features low, it's going to be prohibitively expensive to get all of them... I'm buying an operating system, not ordering a handbuilt car.

Carol Haynes

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Re: RANT: High Software Prices!
« Reply #108 on: April 01, 2008, 11:52 AM »
They have had enough trouble getting Vista to work properly with its miriad editions - what chance do they have where most of the OS is available as plugins.

Personally I would guess that an awful lot of people will continue to stick with XP !!

I am just in the process of removing Vista from my laptop - can't stand it any longer and the company that make it are sending me a copy of XP Pro gratis (despite not having a downgradable version of Vista) so it shows what they think!

Lashiec

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Re: RANT: High Software Prices!
« Reply #109 on: April 01, 2008, 06:35 PM »
Personally, I don't have a great issue with it, as long as they charge a sensible price for the OS, and a small fee to activate some major features, like as I mentioned the other day, Media Center, or controlling Windows with the voice (as long as it's clearly something people with accessibility problems is not using).

Perhaps something like BitLocker as well, or Internet Explorer maybe. Nobody will miss that one :D. Essentially, big features of the OS used by a certain niche of the market, and for which free alternatives exist.