Proprietary software isn’t evil
November 16, 2008
I don’t know what’s up with Linux users lately, but today someone tried to tell me, because I mentioned using the BSD License, that I should be using the GPL license. The reasoning being that the BSD License allows others to edit your software and then release it under a proprietary license. That’s the reason I was using the BSD License in the first place. I really don’t care if someone releases a proprietary version of my work.
There is nothing inherently evil about proprietary software. Sure, it can be “abused”, like all things. Companies hold software “hostage”, by “forcing” you to upgrade or somehow paying more money to them. Companies have you pay for software because they are interested in making money. They are a business, first and foremost. There is nothing wrong with making money, even in excess.
Sure, MS Office 2007 may cost a pretty penny, but there are plenty of docx converters out there anyways. Besides – I’m pretty much in love with Office 2007 and use it at school whenever I can (I don’t own a copy at home, unfortunately). MS may have overpriced it, but they deserve money for it.
Proprietary software is beneficial for several types of things – games, Â military software, and generally, other expensive things. Compare lincity NG to Simcity 4000. There’s no competition, Simcity 4000 wins, hands down. In order for some genres of games to be good, they need a corporate backing. They need tens or hundreds of programmers and millions of dollars – not 3 guys that live in their mother’s basement. I seriously doubt you’ll ever see an open source alternative to GTA4 or the Sims 2.
I’ve never gotten how OSS is a viable market option. How do you sell software when someone can just take said software and release it for free? Makes no sense to me. You have to make your software non-reproducable order to make money. Sure, one could argue that you could just pirate said software, however, that is illegal, which is not the case for OSS software
Proprietary software will not eat, kill, or rape your children, despite what RMS wants you to believe. It may take a nice chunk out of your wallet, but it’s not evil. End of story.
Filed in Uncategorized
Tags: proprietary software, bsd license, gpl, annoying people, linux users
November 16, 2008 at 3:17 am
I fail to understand why the FOSSNazis (as I call them) are so horribly insistent about this. If they develop something (and many critics don’t, actually) then they are welcome to distribute it using any license they choose, without being criticized. Likewise, it should be expected that anything you (or I) release should be equally free of such criticism.
Don’t like it? Don’t use the software! Sheesh.
November 16, 2008 at 3:25 am
Well you kinda lost me at
“They need tens or hundreds of programmers and millions of dollars – not 3 guys that live in their mother’s basement”
Well you clearly don’t understand that a lot of OSS projects _do_ have major corporate backing. One good example that comes to mind is the Linux kernel.
Now Lincity NG probably _was_ created by nerds in their mother’s basements, but generalizing OSS development as a bunch of nerds in parental basements is wrong.
And you could ask Red Hat about the whole making money off of OSS thing. They know how it’s done.