In the past, most software I used was paid and proprietary and would have some sort of limitation that I would try to get around by any means possible. Sometimes that would be resetting the clock on my computer, disabling the internet, and other times downloading a patch.

But in the past few years I’ve stopped using those things and have focused only on free and open source software (FOSS) to fulfill my needs. I hardly have to worry about privacy problems or trying to lock down a program that calls home. I might be missing out on some things that commercial software delivers, but I’m hardly aware of what they are anymore. It seems like the trend is for commercial software providers to migrate toward online or service models that have the company doing all the computing. I’m opposed to that, since they can take away your service at any time.

What do you do?

  • @JoeKrogan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    51•1 year ago

    I just use FOSS. I don’t trust that proprietary garbage. I generally don’t pirate software in general. Its far too easy to trojanize it. I also buy games on steam to support linux/deck and valves investment in the ecosystem, I buy them steeply discounted though. With Roms, sales and free games I have a massive backlog so being patient pays off.

    I also find that the quality of the FOSS stuff is better and way more configurable. Not hating on anyone that does pirate software or prefers proprietary stuff, to each their own

    • @zxo@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      10•1 year ago

      I agree, there are some insane FOSS apps and programs like NewPipe (kinda uses proprietary but eh, there’s no real replacement for YouTube) that I would always prefer over a pirated version of another, better known app.

    • @Acheron@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      9•1 year ago

      I hate proprietary stuff, but sometimes Proprietary is the best option. IDA and Binja have features that Ghidra and Curtter lack, Charles Proxy and Fiddler have more features than mitmproxy, IntelliJ is just better than Eclipese or VSCodium, Autocad and most of the Autodesk suite have no FOSS counterparts. On the flip side, you have Notepad++ that’s better than Sublime, x64dbg is my favorite debugger, and I’ve been using Lunacy for photo editing recently over the multiple m0nkrus packs I have in my torrent client, and Blender is better in a lot of scenarios than Maya or whatever else.