Sticking it to the Man
Chapter: Random
Before anyone gets too bent out of shape on the commercial vs. open source debate, relax. It’s just a comic. :) Part 2 and 3 of this topic pop up this Wednesday and Friday. Tell a friend.
Do you run open source software exclusively? Or are you currently content with commercial software? If so, what’ll it take to make the switch to OSS? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
-Krishna
These beautiful and intelligent people wrote
Tell me what you think!
Kim
April 7, 2013 at 9:39 pmI’ve opened PSDs in GIMP before. Nice try, sir.
Krishna M. Sadasivam
April 7, 2013 at 9:43 pmI was just seeing if you were paying attention, Kim.
Kim
April 7, 2013 at 9:48 pmFair enough. There’s plenty of viable examples you could use though. Like “I need to finish this Flash project”.
Jake Eskel
April 8, 2013 at 8:29 amFlash is a goodie. Except I think there are open source versions…
Normand C.
April 8, 2013 at 11:08 pmExcept that GIMP 2.8 still can’t open CMYK .psd files. So the joke’s still relevant. :-P
I’ve been using Ubuntu since 2007, and exclusively since end of 2010. I bought a new PC back in November, first thing I did was install Ubuntu 12.04. I’ve booted on Windows only twice since then, and for a few minutes each time. I’m thinking I should erase it!
I use open source software as much as possible, I use the usual proprietary drivers/codec such as Nvidia and Flash. I also have Steam on my system. But I try to limit my use of closed source software, most of all those with proprietary format.
Jake Eskel
April 9, 2013 at 6:18 amDon’t delete it… unless you REALLY need the storage space. Just shrink the partition down to only have 5GB of working space after the used data, so when you need it you can.
I just don’t like the idea of deleting things (Just lost 5 pages of an essay because I didn’t confirm the contents of my vim swapfile before restoring, and then :wq! to restart… a mistake).
Kevin Rubin
April 8, 2013 at 12:38 pmI’ve worked on projects where we have a lot more bugs in our apps in Internet Explorer because some developers are so open source fanatical they refuse to test their HTML/Javascript in IE, and won’t listen to arguments like “well, the majority of our users use IE” saying things like “we shouldn’t sell it to people won’t use open source…”
JIMFan
April 9, 2013 at 3:27 amThere’s a simple answer, surely? If you don’t sell the software, then they don’t get paid.
If they don’t test the software properly (and push aside their fanatacism) then people won’t buy it…and they don’t get paid.
There are many ideals which are worth sacrifice, but the “battle” for open source is not worth going hungry/jobless!
…and if your developers refuse to properly test the applications before submitting to the customers, then they are not working to their job requirements!
kaitou
April 9, 2013 at 9:42 pmBoth sides are guilty on this point. I’ve seen several sites that don’t work well, or at all, on anything *but* IE. You really need to test on as many browsers as you can, at least the major ones.
sd_whiteboy
April 8, 2013 at 3:24 pmExchange/Outlook own our souls for the foreseeable future. The calendaring and VoIP integration are just to great to give up.
Arkanabar
April 8, 2013 at 5:05 pmI use FOSS operating systems and applications for the most part. But I’m no purist; I have played WoW, UO, and a number of other captive games. I have most captive codecs on my system, and captive nVidia drivers instead of nouveau (which was REALLY BAD in Ubuntu 12.04 and derived distros). When school requires it, I use captive software, and I have not wiped Win7 from my lappy, cos sometimes I need to run freeware that nobody would ever bother test for Wine. And I use Win7 on my lappy to play League of Legends. But at least 98% of my computing is in a Linux environment, with whatever captive software is necessary for a good experience — mosly captive drivers and codecs, and the flash plugin.
Jake Eskel
April 9, 2013 at 10:44 pmOSS? I don’t care so much… just so long as it runs lightly. Running decade-old hardware and closed-source programs rarely works. OSS tends to be lighter. And besides, Chromium-Browse doesn’t steal my data like Google Chrome, and is the heaviest program (20% of my CPU, 25% of my RAM) on this computer because it is just so good.
And besides, OSS tends to work OOB on Linux.
Michael Bastos
April 19, 2013 at 10:57 amPSD is an open standard that can be opened on any number of Open Source Software applications like Gimp or Gimpshop etc. Would have been funnier if he had said something like he wanted to open a Microsoft specific format like *.mic or something, but even then I can run it in Wine lol.
Frank
September 23, 2014 at 6:56 amI think open source software does everything its commercial counterparts can do. But there are a number of problems affecting it being used widely: firstly, the commercial giants spend oceans of money on marketing, making the average technology user believe that the only choice available to them is to spend money AND pushing the price of the software up to unbelievable levels. Secondly we need to train the average technology user and geekify them a bit so that they are confident with the idea of using a free and open software package rather than the one that is forced down their throat by technology retailers (who all seem to be in bed with the commercial software giants). Thirdly, big business always seems to fall into the commercial software trap. If big business upper management learned a little more about software and operation of their technology, perhaps they would see the value of open source software as well. But they are locked into their big money contracts with the major commercial software giants and are unaware that there is an alternative: use open source and employ slightly more support people on the ground for a massive saving.