Software rip-off - how to avoid it!

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Software rip-off - how to avoid it!
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gom

Joined: 16 Jul 2009
Posts: 13

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 09 10:15 pm Post subject: Software rip-off - how to avoid it!

For years it has amazed me how Microsoft has managed to pull off the biggest scam in history, and I have really resented having to pay for MS Office in particular

.
So now I don't, I came across Open Office two years ago and have been using it since without any problems - it is compatible with MS Orifice.
It's free, it kicks MS Office's ar*e and it's here:

https://www.openoffice.org/

(I have no connection to Open Office, but I do have big problems with getting ripped off by you know who and I am sure some of you will feel the same way).

vegplot

Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 21301
Location: Bethesda, Gwynedd

Posted: Wed Jul 22, 09 10:43 pm Post subject: Re: Software rip-off - how to avoid it!
Sounds like a bit of a troll.

oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 09 7:05 am Post subject: Re: Software rip-off - how to avoid it!

vegplot wrote:

Sounds like a bit of a troll.

That's a bit unfair. Its only gom's 4th posting. he couldn't have realised that certain subjects arouse pages of agitated comments.

He could of course save even more money by not paying for that third rate crock of bloated dung called Windoze giving loads of dosh to the evil monopoly Micro$oft run by some of the most unethical capitolists ever.

Now thats trolling

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35934
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 09 7:18 am Post subject:
Personally I feel that everyone who uses windows should be put up against the wall and shot with green gunk until they promise to convert to Ubuntu, installed via command line, because Bill Gates is a hidden Darth Vader who wants to take over the world Welcome, gom . Lots of Open Office users here, and Ubuntu users, too!

Jb

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 7761
Location: 91ï¿½ N

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 09 8:01 am Post subject:
To give MS it's due I think that most of office is pretty good, it's their OS and servers which are appalling. OTOH most people don't need anything from Word that hasn't been in every version since Word 6 and most people could quite happily make do with even a fraction of the functionality of OpenOffice.

Brownbear

Joined: 28 May 2007
Posts: 14929
Location: South West

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 09 8:02 am Post subject:

Chez wrote:

Ubuntu, installed via command line

Which is precisely why normal people don't use it. We haven't time to spend years learning how to weave our own hard drives, we want something that says, 'Press Button A'.

Ubuntu sometimes seems to be Linux and vice versa, and there are dozens of sub-versions as little groups of fundamentalist techies break away and form their own release sects after a trivial disagreement with some other techies about what integer to alternate with which command or whatever.

Jb

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 7761
Location: 91ï¿½ N

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 09 8:18 am Post subject:

Brownbear wrote:

Chez wrote:

Ubuntu, installed via command line

Which is precisely why normal people don't use it. We haven't time to spend years learning how to weave our own hard drives, we want something that says, 'Press Button A'.

I suspect Chez was being sarcastic and impying they should be made to suffer. Linux does not require people to 'weave their own hard drives'. The current install process for most flavours of linux is;

1 - insert CD
2 - Err, that's it!

I would also have to say that with the most recent versions of Linux the install has usually been easier than installing Windows. The main (only?) reason most people use windows is because it was on the box when they got it.

Brownbear

Joined: 28 May 2007
Posts: 14929
Location: South West

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 09 8:21 am Post subject:

JB wrote:

The current install process for most flavours of linux is;

1 - insert CD
2 - Err, that's it!

And could I still use programmes like Photoshop, MS Office (I prefer OpenOffice but other people don't and send me documents in it) and so on?

vegplot

Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 21301
Location: Bethesda, Gwynedd

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 09 8:24 am Post subject:
@JB I would disagree with that. I've had more problems getting Unbuntu installed than with any other operating system.

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35934
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 09 8:26 am Post subject:
I'm sorry, I didn't preface my post with a 'Troll Warning'

vegplot

Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 21301
Location: Bethesda, Gwynedd

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 09 8:28 am Post subject:

Chez wrote:

I'm sorry, I didn't preface my post with a 'Troll Warning'

Trollop.

(in the nicest possible way))

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35934
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 09 8:35 am Post subject:

vegplot

Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 21301
Location: Bethesda, Gwynedd

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 09 8:36 am Post subject:
If you want to harp on about software rip-offs you could do worse than defocusing on a single vendor and look at the often huge pricing differentials of software bought in the US and over here.

Jb

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 7761
Location: 91ï¿½ N

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 09 8:47 am Post subject:

Brownbear wrote:

JB wrote:

The current install process for most flavours of linux is;

1 - insert CD
2 - Err, that's it!

And could I still use programmes like Photoshop, MS Office (I prefer OpenOffice but other people don't and send me documents in it) and so on?

Not out of the box, and if that is you reason for having a computer then yes you should install windows. But that is a completely different argument from ...

Brownbear wrote:

....We haven't time to spend years learning how to weave our own hard drives, we want something that says, 'Press Button A'.

Ubuntu sometimes seems to be Linux and vice versa, and there are dozens of sub-versions as little groups of fundamentalist techies break away and form their own release sects after a trivial disagreement with some other techies about what integer to alternate with which command or whatever.

which seems to based more on a very old fashioned view of early versions of linux.

Of course most people want little more from a computer other than the ability to run word / outlook / ie / openoffice / evolution / firefox. If that is all they want then windows offers no advantage whatsoever over linux.

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35934
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Thu Jul 23, 09 8:54 am Post subject:

Brownbear wrote:

I prefer OpenOffice but other people don't and send me documents in it) and so on?

Invalid argument, Mr Bear - OpenOffice both reads MS documents and allows you to save in MS format!

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