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

JohannesSM64
Member
From: Norway
Registered: 2009-10-11
Posts: 623
Website

Do you use proprietary software?

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)

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#2 2009-12-20 21:13:29

wonder
Developer
From: Bucharest, Romania
Registered: 2006-07-05
Posts: 5,941
Website

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

same as you + skype, vmware player


Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.

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#3 2009-12-20 21:20:40

hatten
Arch Linux f@h Team Member
From: Sweden, Borlange
Registered: 2009-02-23
Posts: 736

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

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

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#4 2009-12-20 21:22:17

ybotspawn
Member
From: Oz
Registered: 2008-04-06
Posts: 140

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

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)


"As long as people are going to call you a lunatic anyway,
why not get the benefit of it? It liberates you from convention. "

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#5 2009-12-20 21:28:19

azleifel
Member
Registered: 2007-10-28
Posts: 486

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

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 ;-)

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#6 2009-12-20 22:14:37

ataraxia
Member
From: Pittsburgh
Registered: 2007-05-06
Posts: 1,553

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

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.

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#7 2009-12-20 22:32:57

chpln
Member
From: Australia
Registered: 2009-09-17
Posts: 361

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

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?

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#8 2009-12-20 22:44:08

Trent
Member
From: Baltimore, MD (US)
Registered: 2009-04-16
Posts: 990

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

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

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#9 2009-12-21 01:17:01

Hide
Member
From: Castalia
Registered: 2007-02-02
Posts: 368

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

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

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#10 2009-12-21 01:24:09

mjheagle8
Member
From: /home/mjheagle8
Registered: 2009-07-12
Posts: 186

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

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


Desktop/Laptop - DWM :: VM - screen
Registered Linux User Number 483137 :: Victory! :: GitHub

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#11 2009-12-21 01:25:21

Allan
Pacman
From: Brisbane, AU
Registered: 2007-06-09
Posts: 11,365
Website

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

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

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#12 2009-12-21 02:21:55

ewaller
Administrator
From: Pasadena, CA
Registered: 2009-07-13
Posts: 19,739

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

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)


Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

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#13 2009-12-21 02:57:24

JohannesSM64
Member
From: Norway
Registered: 2009-10-11
Posts: 623
Website

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

IIRC the MS fonts aren't proprietary.

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#14 2009-12-21 04:29:07

ngoonee
Forum Fellow
From: Between Thailand and Singapore
Registered: 2009-03-17
Posts: 7,354

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

Heroes of Newerth!


Allan-Volunteer on the (topic being discussed) mailn lists. You never get the people who matters attention on the forums.
jasonwryan-Installing Arch is a measure of your literacy. Maintaining Arch is a measure of your diligence. Contributing to Arch is a measure of your competence.
Griemak-Bleeding edge, not bleeding flat. Edge denotes falls will occur from time to time. Bring your own parachute.

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#15 2009-12-21 04:45:36

iBertus
Member
From: Greenville, NC
Registered: 2004-11-04
Posts: 2,228

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

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.

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#16 2009-12-21 11:18:23

weakhead
Member
From: Poland
Registered: 2008-08-21
Posts: 341
Website

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

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.

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#17 2009-12-21 12:51:45

milomouse
Member
Registered: 2009-03-24
Posts: 940
Website

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

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)

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#18 2009-12-21 14:47:57

Cyrusm
Member
From: Bozeman, MT
Registered: 2007-11-15
Posts: 1,053

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

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


Hofstadter's Law:
           It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.

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#19 2009-12-21 14:54:16

jelly
Administrator
From: /dev/null
Registered: 2008-06-10
Posts: 714

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

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

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#20 2009-12-21 15:25:56

Ranguvar
Member
Registered: 2008-08-12
Posts: 2,544

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

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.

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#21 2009-12-21 15:30:21

.:B:.
Forum Fellow
Registered: 2006-11-26
Posts: 5,819
Website

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

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 smile. 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 tongue. 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 tongue.

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


Got Leenucks? :: Arch: Power in simplicity :: Get Counted! Registered Linux User #392717 :: Blog thingy

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#22 2009-12-21 15:45:44

drcouzelis
Member
From: Connecticut, USA
Registered: 2009-11-09
Posts: 4,092
Website

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

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.

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#23 2009-12-21 17:16:05

Anikom15
Banned
From: United States
Registered: 2009-04-30
Posts: 836
Website

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

You need proprietary software to see my avatar. tongue

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.


Personally, I'd rather be back in Hobbiton.

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#24 2009-12-21 17:20:54

ewaller
Administrator
From: Pasadena, CA
Registered: 2009-07-13
Posts: 19,739

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

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.


Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

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#25 2009-12-21 17:46:41

drcouzelis
Member
From: Connecticut, USA
Registered: 2009-11-09
Posts: 4,092
Website

Re: Do you use proprietary software?

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.

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