Proprietary Software Addiction

[Ghodmode]

As Windows users, reluctant or not, we depend on proprietary software every day. It's a single company. Microsoft. Their only goal is to make money and we are at their mercy. It's almost like an addiction and they're the dealer.

I started thinking about this recently when I read a study [PDF] about the failure to successfully implement Open Source Software at a university. One of the main issues reported was "compatibility problems" and it made me think about the users of proprietary software, their needs and their expectations. I realized that there were a surprising number of similarities between use of proprietary software and the use of addictive drugs. I wrote my article based on that and the metaphor didn't fall apart.

The article: End Your Addiction!

--
Ghodmode
www ghodmode.com/blog

 

[Trouble]

Clicked the "End Your Addiction" link above and was reading along and the posted ended with
"but there's a network of people aroun"
is there another paragraph or two or perhaps another page.
So what's really "The Solution"?

 

[Mike]

Can't say I agree with you Ghodmode, and Trouble is right when he mentions the article doesn't even end. Of course, I think you have a right to say what you have to say, but please don't use the site as an outlet to plug your own blog in the future. We would love to see more blog entries from you if they contain substantive information and ideas without links to your other 3rd-party blog. Starting a blog on this site is for your own original use and also not for support Q&A like the support forums.

I think there is a fair argument that we are all "addicts" to commercialism in one form or another, but how the concept of intellectual property has developed and evolved over the years has always been a difficult time. Proponents of commercial software will argue that it creates jobs for programmers and a host of talented people in an industry that, historically speaking, is in its infancy whereas open source projects are often times commercialized anyway -- a board of directors throws a Linux distro together to sell in stores and makes a 100% profit on an operating system thousands of people around the world contributed to for free.

 

[msfanboy98]

I think I have that addiction