100%
I make a pretty decent effort to use FOSS even when there is a much more polished closed source alternative (*ahem* FreeCAD) but for some things there really isn’t a choice.
You can’t VRChat without the official client, for example.
As a recovering Apple user, I kinda straddle the two worlds. I’m still in a place where I like software to look tidy, with a decent GUI and workflows that make sense. With the best will in the world, a good amount of FOSS misses the mark on some of that.
But the more I use Linux, the more FOSS I use, and get used to.
Absolutely. Linux on the desktop, f-droid on my Android phone. The fact if something irritates me enough I can download the code and fix it.
I’m lucky I have a job working with FLOSS software. I don’t think I could go back to hacking on propriety code.
A lot of the time, FOSS is the only way to get what I want done because there is nothing else.
Anything that I want to last for a long time. Most proprietary software has only a few years worth of shelf life, before it either turns to shit or ceases to exist. And I most prefer foss for applications where I generate the data and want complete control over it, such as notes, images etc, both for security and privacy along with longevity and full control
FOSS
And as I’ve gotten older and more financially stable, I’ve been donating to software I use.
So it’s not the free aspect alone that appeals to me, it’s the lack of ads!!! Lack of data mining and honestly in most cases the FOSS version is less bm9stred>and actually addresses the issues the real app has.
We’re really asking this question on Lemmy? What kind of answers do you expect to get here?
I think this is the equivalent of a lead singer asking the audience “Are you ready to rock!?!?!”
Haha the first part of the question is quite a Reddit-like question, better to ask how pragmatic or fanatic one is in usage of free software.
Yeah, I much more prefer free, libre, open source software. Even just the gut feeling is much better for me 😊
Yes, very much so. Everyday; I run a linux system and the majority of the apps on my phone are from f-droid.
Same. Cheers brother. :)
I prefer that it is easy to use, and that it is stable. I don’t care if it’s open source or closed source. I’ll pay either way. Tips or donations or just straight pay for it.
a side note for those that do free open source and want donations or tips, … make it easy to donate. I ran into one piece of software that said please donate. I spent 20 minutes trying to figure out how. I gave up. And just use the software for free.
“to donate, send Bitcoin to…”
Yeah nevermind
Or the better one : to donate go to this webpage, then create an account, so we can go to this webpage , so that way, you might be able to donate. Possibly
I prefer FOSS because it focuses on creating something good instead of something that focuses on extracting as much money possible.
This might be a hard pill for a lot of people on here to swallow, but for the average user open source is not a feature. Free is, but the user experience is often worse than for closed source software, so it’s a hard sell even at free sometimes.
I’m always very happy to find Foss apps that defy that stereotype, but they’re far and few between from my experience.
Not trying to shit on Foss apps with this, but I see way too many people acting like the open source aspect is a selling point in and of itself, and it’s not except for to the most techy of users.
In my experience most of them are pretty easy to set up with basic computer skills and a look at the documentation. There are two big problems with that though.
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Basic computer skills aren’t as common as you would think.
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FOSS documentation isn’t written for people without those skills.
That leads to a lot of issues that aren’t terribly complicated to solve but would be showstoppers for regular users. I would not consider myself a high level user but I’ve managed to get quite a few applications up and running with nothing but time and a willingness to be frustrated. The few people I’ve gone into details with about those applications had no clue what I was talking about. Mostly because they would never tolerate the frustration required to get past the initial setup and have therefore never learned how to do any of it.
This is very true, great point.
I also find it very hard to switch to Foss stuff for professional uses most of the time, because of the often rough user experience, or sometimes lacking industry standard features. When you do something full time you want to be using the smoothest version of what you need.
I don’t blame the devs for this either. It’s often one or a few enthusiasts doing it in their spare time for free, so I certainly don’t say this in an entitled way. It’s just the reality.
Yeah paid software babies users, often to the point of being annoying. FOSS assumes you can troubleshoot complex issues effectively. There’s a happy medium somewhere in there but like you said, it’s tough to get there with a limited volunteer dev team.
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This might ne a hard pill, but… A lot of selfish people like to be selfish, selfishly. The point of a community is doing a bit more work personally or sometimes making a light sacrifice so that others do better as well.
You should actually slow down and re-read your statement, Maine you don’t know how you sound? Feels like you have kind of a , “sure, I could help out homeless people with some spare change, but where is my personal benefit in that? Now, im always very happy to find the person that I give $.50 in change to and they give me a dollar back to defy the stereotype, but those people are few and far between IME.”
Dude, give your AI girlfriend some crypto so you can ask her a question, and then ask her to define “empathy” for you.
I’m sorry if any of that is a hard pill to swallow.
I’ll be honest, that was so random and meandering I don’t even know what pill I’m supposed to be having trouble with. 🤷♂️
Hmm, tough call. Generally speaking I guess I’d prefer freedom over eternally paying rent to the tech oligarchs but then I’d miss out on the benefits of Microsoft’s latest adjustments to the Windows 11 start menu.
lol
