Pop up programs - Liberty.me

Pop up programs

Frank Maruschak July 21, 2015 at 1:30 am

When we buy a computer we “own” the hardware, but the hardware is useless until we install an operating system to govern the way the hardware works. Computer hardware and operating systems are becoming more and more complex as each day goes by. We have to install a browser or similar application to communicate over the net. The “licensing fee that we pay don’t seem to give us the “quiet enjoyment” of these products the same way that you are entitled to the quiet enjoyment of a rented house or apartment. When we “rent” an operating system or an application we should have the same quiet enjoyment of the product that we get when we rent a house or apartment. If we rent a carpet cleaner it doesn’t print a rent me again message which becomes visible only after we have returned the machine and the carpet dries. Why should software vendors be able to clutter our systems with pop up messages when we no longer choose to buy or rent their products. For that matter with all of the experts and programmers working on the problem why can’t “they” keep hackers and thieves off of the net and out of OUR systems. Any thoughts?

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Roger Browne July 21, 2015 at 6:29 am

When you pay a licensing fee, you are “allowed” to install software which may operate in the best interests of the software vendor rather than in your best interests.

Instead, you can install an open source operating system such as Ubuntu. There’s no licensing fee to pay. If you don’t like the way the software works, you can install a different open source operating system. Or, since the source code is open, you can modify it to work exactly how you want it to work (or pay a programmer to do so for you).

If you’ve known nothing but Microsoft it may take you a little while to get used to things that work differently in a free operating system such as Linux (e.g. Fedora or Ubuntu), but it’s worth it. There is very little crapware bundled with open source software, and (unlike with proprietary software) you can ALWAYS remove anything you don’t like.

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Ben Johnson July 21, 2015 at 10:12 am

What Roger said. I choose not to pay licensing fees by running non-proprietary software.

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  Frank Maruschak July 21, 2015 at 2:56 pm
  
  I am familiar with Linux. It is not that hard to adapt to Linux, however the mere existence of an alternative operating system is no excuse for being deprived of the quiet-enjoyment of a product by the actions of thieves and hackers whether that product is paid for or not. The main reason the Linux based systems are not the target of the hackers is the numbers. Linux based systems simply aren’t as target rich an environment as the Windows based systems.
  
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    Roger Browne July 21, 2015 at 3:35 pm
    
    Well, one thing is for sure. If a piece of proprietary software doesn’t allow quiet enjoyment (because of, e.g., bundled crapware), and if people keep buying that software, then the software vendor is going to keep bundling crapware.
    
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    - Frank Maruschak July 21, 2015 at 4:10 pm
      
      Yes it is called incrementalism most people will tolerate a little bit of crapware just like they will tolerate a small deprivation of liberty, usually till it is too late to reverse the trend.
      
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