|  CathB | Nov 28, 2007 1:29pm | | Freeware is software where you don't have to pay for. Free Software is software where price is not an issue, but only the freedom counts. This freedom gives you the right to run the software for any purpose, view the source code, adept and improve it and share and restribute it. What do you prefer and why? |
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Sponsor |  xique | Nov 28, 2007 1:46pm | From a user's perspective:
I can't say I prefer one or the other.
I often find Freeware to be a little more mature.
Especially payware that is released as Freeware after a while.
Of course, there is certainly enough excellent Free Software as well.
A small correction: Freeware doesn't always mean you can't run it for any purpose, some programmers allow users to do so.
Greenware is my favourite license. :] |
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| | Skreech | Nov 28, 2007 7:37pm | | Free software is my drug of choice. I guess I prefer it because it feels more transparent and when I really really want something to work the way I want it then it's possible rather than having the rules changed around me without having a say in it. |
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| | kellermaverick | Nov 29, 2007 10:57am | | Even though I don't really code beyond SQL or VBA, I prefer Free Software. I like that there is a community behind the software offering frequent bugfixes and feature updates. |
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| | Josh1billion | Nov 29, 2007 11:59am | It doesn't really matter to me. If you want to distribute your code with your application, then it might be useful in a few cases. In most cases, it makes no difference.
How often are you really going to download something and then actually go through the work of studying that author's code, digging through it to find what you want to change, and then spend the time and energy to actually write the new code and get it to work? For most people, very rarely. For other people.. you could be spending your time doing something much more productive.
There are some times when having an application's source is useful, like when trying to find out how somebody did something and to learn from that. But that usually only applies to smaller software. Chances are, you're not going to download OpenOffice.org and read it over and say "oh, so THAT's how you write a Word Processor!"
Other than that, some people seem to use open-source software just because it's the "in" thing to do. These are often the same people who go around posting "Micro$oft sucks!1" on their vBulletins. |
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| | Skreech | Nov 29, 2007 6:02pm | I've done it before. And it might not even be the whole rewriting of code but I've spotted bugs in programs and been able to point to where the bug lies which takes my bug report from Button does nothing to Button calls this file which calls this function which seems to drop the call. That takes my bug report from Wha? Umm ok that's something that I never use and I'm not eager to go hunting it down so I'll drop into my "todo" list which >might< get looked at next year to It's where? in her.. OH I think I see what's going on. I'll just change this and mark the bug fixed. Commit and it should be good in the new release we are putting out tomorrow.
Granted I probably wouldn't have been able to make the fix at that time cause of many points but It was pretty easy with some motivation to greatly narrow down where the problem lay. That makes me a better user and the fix much more palatable for someone skilled enough so wins all around. |
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|  rmg12 | Feb 3, 2:37pm | | free software - open source is good but I still use microsoft, next time I buy a pc i want to put linux on it - I hate the people who put Micro$oft Winblows/doze though as I don't think windows is that bad tbh, also mac fanboys too (yes macs look cool and run well but so what) |
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 |  2098623 | Feb 10, 5:06am | | freeware is better |
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| | Tabmow | Feb 10, 10:33am | | I appreciate the forward thinking of free software. Still, good software is just that. Most of the time, software has no reason not to be free software, and the reason it retains itself as freeware is because it's pushing crap in addition to what you want. Then again, when the freeware is not pushing crap you don't want, like a game service, then I've got no qualms with it. |
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| Prefer Freeware or Free Software? | | |
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