sleipnir,
It is more a philosophy of principles rather than a de facto possibility.
I don't believe software is something that should be sold to people in a licence form. I hate the current model of proprietary formats and models.
I don't mind so much compagnies like UltraEdit that do extra efforts to provide quality software that don't stop you from going back and forth with other software. Heck I'm happy to buy a licence from them. But if I find an open source text editor that makes more sense (both budgetarily or for features i'll drop them in a split second).
Everyone should be using Free software both at home and in the office because there are tons of people offering quality software that is free.
Unfortunatly life isn't that way. We have big compagnies forcing their way into businesses and people's homes by not allowing anyone to use their proprietary format.
The only thing really stopping the Open Source movement from getting everywhere is that Microsoft keeps their forceful hands on people with their Office file format.
There are quality open source office applications but they cannot work with Office documents. Many businesses don't want to start using OpenOffice (free) but feel obliged to use something expensive (MS style) because that means they can operate with the majority of people out there. Heck someone looking for a job needs to send their resume in Word format if they want it to be opened by any potential employer.
If Microsoft would be forced to open their file format to others or start using a real XML format (not one that is proprietary and incompatible with other office applications), then people would be allowed to use free software to work with people all over the world and heck if Microsoft software really is that much better they could choose to pay to use it.
Truth is Microsoft doesn't offer much more than any other free software. If you use their software you are bullied around and have to pay for your licences for the years to come. If you don't they make sure it is hard enough for you to work in the IT field.
So as a rule of thumb I think people should have only free software on their computers at home. If they are forced by some bully to use their software then I don't feel bad if they "borrow" that software to view files or do anything else they need to (convert to OpenOffice format or send a resume in Word format).
Businesses on the other hand if they really made sensible choices as far as expenses are concerned they should have only one computer with expensive software running on it (so that people can convert to open file formats and communicate with the rest of the bullied world).
The rest of the machines should run Linux, OpenOffice, Evolution, GIMP, PHP, Perl, Apache and other quality tools that in very many ways provide better cost/quality ratio than MS products do. Gary
Haran
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