I’m writing this with a bit of a kicking myself in the balls for not learning this sooner.
I do not support non profit Open Source Software (OSS) anymore. For years, I have remained highly skeptical, and now I am fully against using any software that doesn’t pay taxes into our society. (I am not open to debating why not, and if anyone comments and attacks me personally, or even tries to threaten me, I will take your IP address and report it to your LOCAL authorities for criminal punishment.)
One of the things in 2018 that turned me away was how much consolidation in the Unified Communications front in OSS world. (Look at Freeswitch switching corporate sponsors and the infamous merger of Free PBX and Asterisk, which was the former’s offspring or “fork” in the coding world.) OSS touts themselves to be more open by having “peer reviewed” investigation of code. You mean “group think” right? What about accountability such as sustainability and looking at the long term? Oh wait, they are just as notorious as commercial software with a lifecycle.
Of course OSS today is the “freeware” or “shareware” of the new Millenium , if you want more features, you have to pay for it right? OSS also stands for Free Open Source Software, but the reason why I stuck to OSS was you’re seeing a LOT more commercial support or free software that requires an unlock situation whether it’s a free community login or some key that will always keep free stuff to a minimum (VMware) or what have you.
So how is it any different than the commercial software?
I don’t see much differences especially when Microsoft’s visual looks, has looked cheap (err it looks like Linux some days); and given how the cloud has degraded the “power user” (thats-a-me) what difference does it make?
I am also sick and tired of the lectures that for profit companies are evil and they aren’t caring and they are solely making money. So what do you do, the FOSS programmer – live in your parent’s basement and not make any buck for a living? Nothing is ever “free”!
When you hear someone say “It’s free and open source”, it should be treated as an oxymoron because most “free and open source software” requires someone to compile the code to make the app work. Most often its a defensive mode by the open source community to keep “non technical” people out of using technology; a tactic known as calling “users” indirectly as “computer illiterate people” a page out of the IBM tech playbook back in the 1950s.
I am also defending acquiring AMERICAN-based vendors. I got f—d over by a Canadian company called CounterPath earlier this year acquiring a SIP softphone app for my legacy workstations to find out after burning $90 that it needs to be on an active WAN to work and not only that the software is going EOL after May 2019 because of a certificate that is expiring. This was not publicized in March while the package was still available to purchase and they gave me a notice in May, after burning this amount of cash for 2 licenses, and the support tech was like “well we told you a couple of times”, NO I only got a stern notice in May. I shouldn’t be lied like that and should get the Windows 7 and greater app for free because of this technical-person-like emotional manipulation support tactic is so far from bait and switch.
I waited too long because I had a life where I just didn’t have the time to set it up. The site doesn’t explain how the licensing works, while I did research prior to. And by the time I confronted their technical support, my PayPal protection lapsed.
Make sure you buy American software, and commercial grade, not some degrading “free” and complex software that only geniuses can figure out. Oh wait, they are in jail because they had raped children because only “technical people” do things that aren’t socially acceptable by law…
</rant>