Do you use proprietary software?

JohannesSM64 · 2009-12-20 21:11:11

Just curious about how much proprietary software Archers use.
I use these non-free packages: nvidia, flashplugin, jre, unrar.
edit: remote apps, router firmware etc don't count

Last edited by JohannesSM64 (2009-12-20 22:52:54)

wonder · 2009-12-20 21:13:29

same as you + skype, vmware player

hatten · 2009-12-20 21:20:40

diablo II, unrar. I think that's all of it.

ybotspawn · 2009-12-20 21:22:17

I honeslty have to wonder why you ask and to what kind of scope you are asking. In todays 'connected world' I'm not quite sure if you can get through life without using proprietary software at least once... I have to use Windows at work, but if you consider skype or vmplayer proprietary than I'd wager half of the archers are going to be forced to say yes. If you consider some of the routers and network devices out there are built by certain proprietary organizations you could loosely say that those of us that use those products also use proprietary software.... not trying to start a flame ware, just my $0.02...

Last edited by ybotspawn (2009-12-20 21:22:38)

azleifel · 2009-12-20 21:28:19

Closed source? Off the top of my head I have Crossover Linux, flashplugin, google-earth, nvidia, unrar, virtualbox and VueScan installed. (If I paid for it, it gets capital letters ;-)

ataraxia · 2009-12-20 22:14:37

As far as what's contained on my own systems, I have none at all other than iwlwifi-5000-ucode.

I do, however, surely use many proprietary apps remotely, most obviously the Google apps, and vBulletin.

Firmware and webapps turn us all into "RMS does not approve" people.

chpln · 2009-12-20 22:32:57

I use iwlwifi-3945-ucode.

JohannesSM64 wrote:

[...] jre, [...]

My understanding was Sun had released this under a permissive licence (GPL?) in the last few years. How it is currently licenced?

Trent · 2009-12-20 22:44:08

iwlwifi-4965-ucode, flashplugin, ... umm, that's it right now, I think.

Hide · 2009-12-21 01:17:01

unrar (I forgot this is proprietary) and flashplugin. That should be it.

mjheagle8 · 2009-12-21 01:24:09

iwlwifi-4965-ucode, flashplugin, unrar, nvidia, jre, occasionally ms word through wine as well.

Allan · 2009-12-21 01:25:21

MS Office 2003/7 - sometimes OOo just does not handle the conversion

ewaller · 2009-12-21 02:21:55

Ah... So are you guys using Coreboot or OpenBIOS ???
Microsoft Fonts?
codecs for mp3, mpg, gif?
;-)

I try to avoid proprietary software, but I do have virtualbox, firmware for by broadcom wireless, and picasa. And of course -- BIOS, fonts, and codecs

Edit: I forgot about flash

Last edited by ewaller (2009-12-21 02:23:25)

JohannesSM64 · 2009-12-21 02:57:24

IIRC the MS fonts aren't proprietary.

ngoonee · 2009-12-21 04:29:07

Heroes of Newerth!

iBertus · 2009-12-21 04:45:36

Vista, nvidia binary blob, several games, ArcGIS 9.3, a few other GIS apps that I can't remember. ~10-15% of my total computer time is spent on Windows.

weakhead · 2009-12-21 11:18:23

unrar-nonfree, flashplugin, Windows XP (not often), BIOS.

@ewaller
Lame - our mp3 encoder is LGPL.

I don't mind if software I use is proprietary. As long as its free for my own use and I don't have to steal it, it's OK.

milomouse · 2009-12-21 12:51:45

I agree with weakhead; as long as it's free to use I don't mind. I try to avoid it whenever I can though because I like to support the open-source community.. but if performance becomes an issue I'll opt for the proprietary version. Like now, I use: nvidia, jre, flashplugin, unrar and some codecs. Nvidia because nouveau doesn't support the driver I want, jre because certain applications I tried simply will not work with OpenJDK, flashplugin because (stupidly) some websites require flash and I need to access them, codecs (obviously) and unrar because it's possibly the most used app I have. AFAIK, I don't have any proprietary fonts.

Last edited by milomouse (2009-12-21 12:52:31)

Cyrusm · 2009-12-21 14:47:57

All I know is I haven't had to pay a penny in software for years now

jelly · 2009-12-21 14:54:16

Office 2007 (OOo doenst always work ), skype, nvidia binary driver ( just waiting for nouveau to get good power saving support for my laptop )

Ranguvar · 2009-12-21 15:25:56

NVIDIA blob because I like to game, Flash because it's Flash (come on, Gnash!!), VMware for lots of reasons...
Skype is CRAP, I refuse to use that junk anyways. Insecure, proprietary protocol, run by jerks... ^^

If we're talking proprietary stuff, then lots of fonts too...

I strongly dislike anything proprietary/closed, but it's not the most important factor, so if a proprietary product offers very strong advantages over Free alternatives, I will choose it.

.:B:. · 2009-12-21 15:30:21

ewaller wrote:

Ah... So are you guys using Coreboot or OpenBIOS ???

There's no way I'm fiddling with my BIOS except for manufacturer updates, for me it's still too much of a black box what goes on inside (plus Coreboot does seem to have certain requirements; I haven't looked into it really). Running custom firmwares on my router is as far as my embedded adventures go.

Microsoft Fonts?

Wine wants them to make some Windows-based apps look good, so yes.

codecs for mp3, mpg, gif?

I use FLAC and Ogg Vorbis, I don't need MP3. I don't care as much about images - often you're locked into what your camera supports, and only high-end stuff allows for RAW. I haven't seen a camera that saves in PNG . As for video, I prefer Matroska as a container because of the features., and h.264 (which means, on Linux, x264 software) because it's the future . Surprisingly x264 seems to be feature-packed compared to non-FOSS counterparts - usually it's the other way (or commercial products will claim it is, at least). Bottom line: I pick quality over ideology.

Rumour has it AAC is superior to Ogg Vorbis/MP3, but my player does not support AAC, and encoding on Linux seems to be in a rather sorry state (faac?). For the small gains that you'd get I don't consider it worth switching though; all the more because if you'd want to use AAC, you'd end up 99% of the time with an Apple player. I don't see how that would be better from a FOSS point of view .

I have Intel's wireless firmware, unrar and that pesky flash thing from evil Adobe.

drcouzelis · 2009-12-21 15:45:44

I used gNewSense for about six months. gNewSense is Ubuntu with all non-free software removed. (software that is open source but non-free is also removed) It is sponsored by the FSF. I thought it was amazing! It is a complete and functional operating system that does everything I need, made of completely free software.

About a month ago I switched to Arch Linux, not because of non-free software, but because I learned about the rolling release schedule and decided I liked that much better than the usual "version" release system. gNewSense is currently based on Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron, and I was interested in using more up-to-date software. Also, I feel that the gNewSense community is hampered by a poor website, wiki, and forum.

I'm currently seeing how it feels to live using the open source software mindset, instead of the free software mindset. So, I am not using any proprietary software. (opposite of open source software) I hate Flash with a passion. As far as I can tell, it is only used for three things: crappy websites, advertisements, and video. (and I can always download the video with the Flash plugin anyway) I think the only non-free software (opposite of free software) that I am currently using is the open source Radeon driver.

Anikom15 · 2009-12-21 17:16:05

You need proprietary software to see my avatar.

Everyone uses proprietary software, I try my best to use free alternatives, but as long as we have companies continuing to develop closed standards, we'll have proprietary software.

ewaller · 2009-12-21 17:20:54

B wrote:

There's no way I'm fiddling with my BIOS except for manufacturer updates, for me it's still too much of a black box what goes on inside

That is pretty much in line with my thinking, even though I didn't really express it.

I am fairly pragmatic. I strongly prefer open software to closed software. My point was that certain non-free software is very difficult to avoid, and is more prevalent on our systems than we think.

When I decide to use any code built from source I may not see, I have to decide whether I trust that code. As someone who uses Google apps, but does not advertise through them, I find them to be benign (for now). At worst, I recognize that they are an advertising company and I am providing them with data about me from which they will try to produce revenue.

Other companies, such as those that push their monopolies through a variety of non-ethical means, are far less likely to have their executables allowed on my system. I might use proprietary non-executables (data, fonts, etc.) from those companies if the licenses permit.

As to the BIOS, there really is not a viable alternative for most systems. On the other hand, most BIOS code serves a narrow, well defined purpose, and is unlikely to do anything underhanded. There is some paranoia about "Trusted Computing" compatible BIOSs preventing the use of "Unauthorized" operating systems. Just because there is paranoia does not mean they are wrong...

In the end, I will use proprietary code. IIRC, even RMS has recognized a place for it in this world. What I do insist on is honoring the copyrights.

drcouzelis · 2009-12-21 17:46:41

Anikom15 wrote:

You need proprietary software to see my avatar.

No, I don't. "giflib" is free software. If you are referring to the patent on LZW compression, that expired in 2004. But patents on file formats are pretty unrelated to the topic of "proprietary software". (unless that's what the original poster actually meant to talk about)

Everyone uses proprietary software

No, they don't. I just said I didn't. Nobody has to if they don't want to. It all depends on your priorities, or in other words, what's important to you.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-12-20 21:11:11

Do you use proprietary software?

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