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  • @tias@discuss.tchncs.de
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    016 days ago

    The IntelliJ products are not exactly “buy once” - if you want updated versions you need to keep paying periodically.

    Not that I think that’s a bad thing necessarily - it doesn’t make sense to expect devs to continue working on something year after year when you’re not paying them for it.

    • @pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip
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      16 days ago

      I’m happy to pay for software, but I want more than just permission, I want long term security that my investment in the tool will last.

      If IntelliJ would open source their oldest versions, I would make my boss buy me a copy of the newest version every year.

      • @tias@discuss.tchncs.de
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        15 days ago

        That sounds good on paper, but the chances that someone else will pick up the ball if they abandon it, even if it’s open source, are very slim. If you care about keeping it alive then paying them is a more effective strategy than hoping for random volunteer work by internet strangers.

        You, on the other hand, have good chances of being able to learn new tools. So I think the need for this security is exaggerated.

        • @pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip
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          015 days ago

          I’m a developer, so my chances are pretty good. But I take your point.

          Even if I weren’t, there’s enough software options out there that I don’t have to pick between paying for proprietary software and living with abandonware.

          So I think the need for this security is exaggerated.

          Of course. I used proprietary software for a long time. Having things I relied on get abandoned got old, but it worked.

          I just expect more from most of my software, now.

    • @nectar@lemmy.world
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      016 days ago

      They are “buy once” in that their licenses include perpetual fallback. Whenever you stop paying, you retain your licenses perpetually

      • @kameecoding@lemmy.world
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        015 days ago

        Not whenever, you need to be paying for a year and then then the latest version from a year ago is what you get the perpetual license for

  • @tabular@lemmy.world
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    016 days ago

    own forever

    Ownership implies control - being able to maintain/repair, modify or even resell.

    To be in control of software you need access to it’s source code, and have the right to share changes with others.

    • @deviancy0299@lemm.ee
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      015 days ago

      Act like a real man. But free and open source software because the devs deserve your money for their free work

    • @atempuser23@lemmy.world
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      015 days ago

      The idea that software developers should work only for ‘tips’ makes it basically impossible to be an independent developer and be a responsible adult.

      You either become a ‘big boy’ and work for an established software house or make games where people don’t have such a stigma to pay small developers for their talent and effort.

      Workers should be compensated for their work. That means sometimes paying for software.

        • @atempuser23@lemmy.world
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          015 days ago

          Foss lives and thrives on passion and unpaid contributions. That can be fine but it’s also necessary to actually purchase software so that individuals or small groups can get paid.

          How do I even compensate the random programmer who spend 30 hours fixing a bug on a foss project I use?

          Especially when in the context of this post which is about software you can buy to own there should be some willingness to spend money on software.

          • @Broken@lemmy.ml
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            015 days ago

            Correct. While there are many (good) programs available for no money, that is charity based on desire and passion.

            Free in FOSS isn’t about price, it’s about freedom.

      • fmstrat
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        14 days ago

        And contribute if you can’t.

        For non-programmers: Yes, reporting bugs, writing docs, and answering questions is contributing.

        Edit: Fun story, the best contributor I ever had was someone who randomly reproduced reported bugs and filled in the details about how they did it.

  • Phoenixz
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    016 days ago

    Fuck paid software, use open source

    It’s not even for the cost of it, I simply refuse to trust any software that is not open because I know they’ll try to fuck me over one way or the other

    • @OmgItBurns@discuss.online
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      015 days ago

      I understand sentiment after seeing how a lot of tech companies are. The other side of it is this: Developers still have bills to pay. FOSS projects are great, especially if they’re done by a small team and have a supportive community, but there are only a limited number of developers who have a combination of knowledge, skill, free time, and financial capability to truly dedicate themselves to FOSS projects.

      If I could support myself by coding for FOSS projects, I would probably try (hell I just might not be aware of opportunities for this) but that isn’t the reality in front of me.

      • @kameecoding@lemmy.world
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        015 days ago

        It is possible, for example Evan You did it, but he wrote the third maybe nowadays 2nd most popular SPA framework in Vue.js and he is also doing other things with Vite, but at that point he is basically getting paid by companies too to work on that.

    • kratoz29
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      015 days ago

      Any paid open source software you’d consider to pay?

      • Phoenixz
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        015 days ago

        Jellyfin, for one, comes to mind

        Maybe it should be easier for people to donate something to open source software. Maybe on the Linux command line there should be a message from apt that certain projects could use your financial help, of you want to.

        I doubt many people would be pissed if projects just ask for a small donation

  • @Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    015 days ago

    I’ve bought way too much software that suddenly abandons their product to launch a new subscription based version.

    I’d rather choose FOSS than anything payed.

    • @nodiratime@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      I boycott anything that has to be paid or is non-free.

      I donate regularly to FOSS projects (that I use).

    • @rice@lemmy.org
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      15 days ago

      also nearly all of the stuff on that site looks like garbage that will do exactly what you said.

      and yes I looked at every single program… there aren’t that many

  • @Diurnambule@jlai.lu
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    15 days ago

    Shady practices.

    They make program/editor pay 99$ to be listed and the link all redirect to a subscribe page sling for an email.

  • @endofline@lemmy.ca
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    015 days ago

    Software maintenance does cost a lot, it’s a full time job. Most people doesn’t pay foss or any at all ( winrar or total commander case ). Most people won’t be able to maintain or adjust foss on their own… Foss doesn’t work forever ( it’s a pain to deeply depend on foss which stops being maintained ). It’s a reality that 1 year fallback license is necessary evil

  • @Geodad@lemm.ee
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    015 days ago

    Discover FOSS software. Just be sure to toss some donations to your favorite projects.

    • @Rin@lemm.ee
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      015 days ago

      Imma be straight up. Donations are cool but not a lot of people give donations. partly because some are skint (i used to be) but mainly because people just don’t know.

      i feel like the biggest issue that foss projects face is the fact that they don’t ask for donations in a way that the average user knows about. Kde sends a notification around christmas asking for donos. I haven’t seen any other foss app do anything similar.

        • @Rin@lemm.ee
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          014 days ago

          I understand that but think about it. As a Linux user, i don’t go to dowload pages. I simply apt install or pacman -S or change my configuration.nix. I will never see that donate button unless I go to the project’s page.

          • @Geodad@lemm.ee
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            14 days ago

            I go to my favorite software’s pages from time to time to see what they’re up to. Also, there are a few pieces that I have to visit the site for news when a non-free dependancy updates.

      • @cageythree@lemmy.ml
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        014 days ago

        I give donations, but way less than I’d like (less in terms of quantity of recipients, not the total financial quantity).

        What I’d love (not only for FOSS, but also stuff like podcasts and other things I’m donating to regularly) would be a service where I can set a budget and select the software and tools I use and it splits it up automatically.

        I don’t mind donating, but I hate managing it, having dozens of small transactions for it, and I feel like I’m forgetting to donate to like 90+% of the stuff I’m using. Also, with payment provider’s fees it’s often not worth it to donate <1€ a month, so bundling transactions would be way more effective - for me as the user as well as the recipients who’d get one transaction once a month from said service rather than hundreds of small ones.

        I never really understood why e.g. Patreon doesn’t offer this. You can’t expect perks with this because the perks probably will start higher than what’s the breakdown of each recipient woild be at a reasonable budget, but the advantage would be that (mostly) everyone would get a piece of your cake, rather than like 5 of the 500 different creators/developers/… you’re using content/software of.