RE: [SLE] Browser war hots up!! [ I can't resist adding this ]
Let us get this straight about shareware. How many of you have every actually paid for it ? It is an open invitation to criminal acts, as soon as there is shareware, there is a cracker. Most of the Windows shareware (not all of it) that I have tried has been appalling, or so crippled as to be worthless. Let me give an illustrative example (sorry is OT). Some time ago I was looking at HTML editors for Windows. There are a lot of them. I tried maybe 7 or 8. Some were horribly maimed, one put a notice on every page that the page was created by "unlicensed sofware", for example. After going through this I found a *truly* excellent one, really remarkable. And guess what. It was totally freeware, no licenses, no shareware, no crippledom. Ok freeware is not open-source necessarily. But shareware is often someone who has knocked something noddy together and wants to get some bucks, without any responsibility for it. Open source ware, also comes with no guarantee. But an odd thing is operating here, the quality is very high most of the time. The authors tend to be proud of it, the peer disapproval is high if it doesn't work. People feel pleased to contribute to it, help others with problems with it..etc. I am not saying Opera is good or bad, I am sure it is excellent. But, I am personally not going to encourage the shareware concept in the systems I personally use. And I repeat the comment from a previous mail. The whole Beta crippled test scenario is a con. You are doing free testing for a product you will have to pay for after 30, 40 whatever days. there you go. Over and out.. Cliff
Cliff Sarginson writes:
Let us get this straight about shareware. How many of you have every actually paid for it ? It is an open invitation to criminal acts, as soon as there is shareware, there is a cracker. Most of the Windows shareware (not all of it) that I have tried has been appalling, or so crippled as to be worthless.
Let me give an illustrative example (sorry is OT). Some time ago I was looking at HTML editors for Windows. There are a lot of them. I tried maybe 7 or 8. Some were horribly maimed, one put a notice on every page that the page was created by "unlicensed sofware", for example. After going through this I found a *truly* excellent one, really remarkable.
And guess what. It was totally freeware, no licenses, no shareware, no crippledom.
Ok freeware is not open-source necessarily. But shareware is often someone who has knocked something noddy together and wants to get some bucks, without any responsibility for it.
Open source ware, also comes with no guarantee. But an odd thing is operating here, the quality is very high most of the time. The authors tend to be proud of it, the peer disapproval is high if it doesn't work. People feel pleased to contribute to it, help others with problems with it..etc.
I am not saying Opera is good or bad, I am sure it is excellent. But, I am personally not going to encourage the shareware concept in the systems I personally use.
And I repeat the comment from a previous mail. The whole Beta crippled test scenario is a con. You are doing free testing for a product you will have to pay for after 30, 40 whatever days.
Anytime we use software we are testing it. By releasing a public beta, many more people are actively testing (using) it. And in the end you usually get a better product. And if you don't like the product then there is always the option of writing your own.
there you go.
Over and out..
Cliff
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On February 2, 2001 09:32 am, Cliff Sarginson wrote:
Let us get this straight about shareware. How many of you have every actually paid for it ?
I have. The problem with some shareware is the seller is trying to charge full retail prices for something that lacks the costs of full retail. The idea behind shareware was to cut down those costs. No need to burn disks. To print manuals. Or anything else.
It is an open invitation to criminal acts, as soon as there is shareware, there is a cracker.
No need to crack shareware. By defination you can freely download and copy it. You are supposed to stop using it if you don't want to pay but that was more of a moral issue.
Most of the Windows shareware (not all of it) that I have tried has been appalling, or so crippled as to be worthless.
If it's crippled it's crippleware. Real shareware will let you use the product 100%. At worst it comes with a delay screen holding you up 10 seconds at most.
And guess what. It was totally freeware, no licenses, no shareware, no crippledom.
Most of Linux comes with a license. How much of Linux is really public domain?
Ok freeware is not open-source necessarily. But shareware is often someone who has knocked something noddy together and wants to get some bucks, without any responsibility for it.
Shareware used to be a way for small programmers to get product out without paying for ads. Without trying to find shelf space. All the other things that commerical software must have but which do little good to the consumer. I'd argue that currently the Linux distributions are pretty close to the orginal idea behind shareware. You can download it or borrow a copy from a friend. Eventually if you like it you might buy a copy. You don't need to buy a copy but many people like to support a quality product and will. That was what drove most successfull shareware. Nick
No need to crack shareware. By defination you can freely download and copy it. You are supposed to stop using it if you don't want to pay but that was more of a moral issue.
This is simply not true, most shareware is restricted in some way, or time limited. *Some* shareware is not, and relies on your honesty - but that is in a very small minority. Cliff
participants (3)
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Cliff Sarginson -
Jesse Marlin -
Nick Zentena