tepples wrote:
zzo38 wrote:
tepples wrote:
If you want to use LibreOffice, but the vast majority of those around you are using Microsoft Office, it's going to be difficult for you to exchange information with them.
I think the old Microsoft formats are mostly compatible with both. I mostly use TeX for typesetting, myself, though. For databases I just use SQLite.
What do you use for designing the forms used to query and update your SQLite databases? Microsoft Access allows non-programmers to design and implement forms and reports. And what do you use to access Access database files that your coworkers, clients, or suppliers have created?
As it turns out I happen to have Microsoft Office too (as well as Microsoft Windows), so I can open those files, but I don't use it for my own files, and anyways it is rare that I ever need to deal with any Microsoft Office files. (Anyways, I mostly work for Free Geek and they use LibreOffice; I don't have LibreOffice on this computer but that doesn't matter because when I am working for them I use their computers.)
I don't usually need forms, since I can use views and triggers, but in case they are needed (or if I want to generate reports), I have written a C program for writing templates with embedded SQL codes. If they are HTML, then forms can be made up that way, too (I have also written a CGI wrapper for this purpose) (I have once done this for Free Geek, to write a program to keep track of their inventory; yes, their inventory program is written purely in SQL and HTML, no PHP or anything like that).
However, there probably are other programs allowing non-programmers to make forms for SQLite databases too, or someone might write them if it doesn't already exist, so if the format is compatible then it can work.
For my own typesetting I use Plain TeX, which is probably the most portable programming language ever. Mostly I never need to send the files to anyone else, although some are available for other people to see (such my Dungeons&Dragons recordings), although when writing printable stuff for Free Geek I also use TeX.
What do
you use?
blargg wrote:
A big reason not to support shareware, commercial, or any other kind of closed-source software is that some day all the source code will disappear with the company, even if it had value to the community.
I absolutely agree. Some people do agree to make their software open-source if they abandoned it. I make it open-source even at first, and that works too, possibly even better.
rainwarrior wrote:
One of the big reasons people choose to use commercial software is that if (i.e. when) you have problems with it, there is professional support you can call to get help.
Yes. Commercial software can still be free/open-source, though; sometimes it is.
rainwarrior wrote:
There is good and bad software of both kinds. A great deal of free software is buggy, unfinished, abandoned, poorly written, unmaintainable, etc. If Bregalad hasn't found this to be the case I think he is either lucky, or willfully ignoring it. Though, at least with free software, if it turns out to be crap, you didn't pay anything for it.
Yes, this is true. Well, if it is free as in price then you didn't pay anything for it. If it is free as in speech, then if it turns out to be no good, you might be able to fix it, if such a thing seems reasonable, and if it doesn't, it is probably free as in price too, so you still didn't pay anything for it.
rainwarrior wrote:
The big problem arises when it does most of what you need, so you start using it and get invested in it, but after a while you hit a wall and you have no way to proceed. If you're a programmer, and the source happens to be maintainable, you might be able to solve the problem yourself (big advantage of open source, here), but if this is not the case you may be completely out of luck. Open source software that is good and useful tends to draw a crowd, but the availability of talented people willing to maintain open source software is often lacking.
Yes, it is true.
rainwarrior wrote:
There's also plenty of types of software for which the commercial software drastically outperforms current open source alternatives. Video editing, for example.
Video editing is one of the things currently on FSF's high priority list.
rainwarrior wrote:
Honestly, though, building complex software is difficult for anybody, open source or professional. Most software is crap. Yes, commercial software companies are motivated to put out their unpolished crap, because they need to sell it. At the same time, it also motivates them to get something out there that at least works. There is a ton of unfinished crappy open source projects out there. I can't count the number of times I've tried to find an open source solution for something and found 10 things that would be able to solve my problem if they weren't all unfinished.
Yes; it is like confirmation bias. This is often the reason why unfinished open-source programs that are not very good are often found, but actually proprietary software is just as bad. However, some unfinished open-source programs might be worked on more by some people; there are more people to work on it. I also wrote some unfinished open-source
programs, and may finish them later. Even if I don't, other people can.
koitsu wrote:
I sit happily on the fence about this matter, pointing fingers at both sides. Both models (commercial vs. free (I assume you mean open-source)) have their pros, and both have their cons.
Free software is mostly the same as open-source (this free is often capitalized "Free" to tell the difference); this is
not the same thing as freeware (although much of Free software is also freeware).
koitsu wrote:
The one thing that both suffer from is lack of proper ownership/responsibility, but this affects open-source much much deeper (and has for decades (I've been involved in the open-source world since 1993)). Ignore all the other aspects and focus just on the ownership/responsibility one for what I'm about to say.
Lack of responsibility has catastrophic effects in the open-source world because there's no fallout from a software author(s) saying "fuck it" + no longer maintaining or supporting their software (just look at how much utter garbage there is on Sourceforge sometime!).....
Like you mention, there is Cathedral and Bazaar development models for open-source; this affects it a bit too. I tend to work on the projects only by myself, which avoids some of those problems with open-source (although also avoids some of the advantages; however, someone can still fork it if they want to, and changes can be merged both ways).
I see how much garbage there is on Sourceforge; this is a kind of confirmation bias, like I have said.