Future of proprietary

Wasn’t it like 40 or so years ago when computer users didn’t always buy a software?

It is Bill Gates’ letter to hobbyists which is considered by many an important milestone in proprietary software concept. This concept, which rules in many software markets today, is essentially alienated by open source software.

What is the difference? There is one major different, and not the one many think.

Proprietary software in Bill Gates’ view, is a software product produced by a highly educated team of professionals. As any product made or manufactured it has to be payed for in order to be used. This team will sign you on a binding license (just as a driver permit, which has its rules); this team will not be responsible if this product destroys everything else in your life, and, my favorite, they keep control regarding how you can or cannot use their product.

Open Source software, on other hand, is all about freedom. Not free (by money factor) as many believe to be the main attribute of it, but freedom to use it the way you like. No, it is still not responsible for possible problems in your life, but the actual usage clause is clear:

As long as you’re not changing the product, you may do whatever you want with it. If you do change the product, credit those who had created the base version you changed and publish your changes to everyone who requests it. Obligate others to use the same licensing terms.

This freedom is the most important part. Not the price. Not the vendor. The freedom of use.

So why, then, vendors would fear open source concept?

The problem lays in “property” concept. When someone is speaking about private property, such as house or premises, it is well understood what is it about. But when someone is talking about “intellectual property”, this is much more complicated. It sounds like someone has “patented” his or her own thoughts and other people are forbidden to think those thoughts. And if they do, they either should pay for it or go to jail – just as thieves would.

So until the law implementations of such “property” use would be clear to all, many vendors would prefer using “real commercial” software products.

And I haven’t started talking about DRMed content yet…

Although I prefer Open Source and Free model, I do understand the place of a commercial software products in the world.

Vendors, please, free the use for your products. And you’ll be fine.

-A.

Technorati : technology

Money Making

Recently, I’ve began checking the opportunities out there, that allow to earn few cents online.
For that matter, I find that most effective read is the blog material many put on their blogs and sites.

For example, I’ve read for a few weeks The Simple Dollar blog. This blog is written by Trent (the full name is yet to be discovered 🙂 ), and is a “…blog for those of us who need both cents and sense: people fighting debt and bad spending habits while building a financially secure future and still affording a latte or two”.

I like his style of writing. His ideas are easy to understand, simple to implement, and fun to read. He gives a sense to people who wish to understand how budget works (and helps you stop referring to “budget” as a dirty word), he helps you to develop good spending habits so you can allow yourself a cup of coffee from time to time.

Highly recommended.

My Full blog

Money stuff and sad Gentoo stuff.

Well, this is not really Gentoo related.

Recently, I moved to a new place. As a result, I found (although I knew it beforehand as well, just didn’t see the numbers) two very important things:

1. My rent went up ~ 2.7 times; and
2. My spare monthly cash went down ~ 3 times

Which means, essentially and unfortunately, that I will probably not be buying a new laptop this year :-(. Which, in turn, sucks

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As result, I started managing my finances in much more strict way than before. I also started reading nice blog about personal finances management – The Simple Dollar. Useful in general and especially for living in US, as all practical advices are made by people living there.

Now, as for Gentoo related stuff – I was sad to find out last week that Diego “flameeys” Petteno has resigned his Gentoo position. Although I am glad to see him joining this planet, I’m sad that great people are leaving their developer positions because of internal Gentoo problems. I’ve seen what Diego gave as an example of the problem which led to his retiring, and all I can say is – childish behavior (not on Diego’s behalf). This is very childish behavior that should not happen if project wants to grow. I think that devrel should really get involved into solving such problems as soon as possible. As I understand, that’s the reason for devrel to exist.

Very sad news, it also affects me as user, and lowers my own motivation to participate.

A note to planet users: if you have a problem with your Larry The Cow planet feed, please let me know (by mailing to djay-il at gentoo-userreps dot org). You can also find me on Freenode IRC channels #gentoo-userrel or #gentoo-userreps.

Enjoy life.