Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on October 02, 2003 05:40 AM
> How is the ability to run MS Office bad?
I agree with you; I don't think it is bad. I'm guessing that the original poster is simply against proprietary software in all shapes and forms--thus making advertising of the ability to run such software even be seen as detrimental. While I understand and respect that position, I personally have to disagree with it. I do try to avoid using proprietary apps (and am mostly successful, though I occasionally use Matlab and Maple), but I think it's perfectly fine (and in some cases even beneficial) to enable such apps to run on the free/open source desktop.
> AbiWord, Gnumeric, OpenOffice all support non-GPL MS file formats. So stop using them too?
You seem to be going a little off topic here. He was talking about applications, not file formats. The apps you listed are FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source Software) and also have open file formats in addition to supporting those locked into Microsoft's proprietary file formats.
> Qt has long been available as GPL, Here you are either completely off-topic or you didn't understand the original poster. Yes, Qt is available under the GPL--and it is also available under a proprietary license. SUSE decided to make YaST proprietary, necessitating the purchase of the proprietary Qt license. SUSE doesn't seem to mind including and even making proprietary software. Some people don't mind this, and among those you'll find some devout SUSE users. However, many people do mind and thus avoid SUSE. Personally, I find myself agreeing with the latter group.
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Re:Due Diligence
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on October 02, 2003 05:40 AMI agree with you; I don't think it is bad. I'm guessing that the original poster is simply against proprietary software in all shapes and forms--thus making advertising of the ability to run such software even be seen as detrimental. While I understand and respect that position, I personally have to disagree with it. I do try to avoid using proprietary apps (and am mostly successful, though I occasionally use Matlab and Maple), but I think it's perfectly fine (and in some cases even beneficial) to enable such apps to run on the free/open source desktop.
> AbiWord, Gnumeric, OpenOffice all support non-GPL MS file formats. So stop using them too?
You seem to be going a little off topic here. He was talking about applications, not file formats. The apps you listed are FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source Software) and also have open file formats in addition to supporting those locked into Microsoft's proprietary file formats.
> Qt has long been available as GPL,
Here you are either completely off-topic or you didn't understand the original poster. Yes, Qt is available under the GPL--and it is also available under a proprietary license. SUSE decided to make YaST proprietary, necessitating the purchase of the proprietary Qt license. SUSE doesn't seem to mind including and even making proprietary software. Some people don't mind this, and among those you'll find some devout SUSE users. However, many people do mind and thus avoid SUSE. Personally, I find myself agreeing with the latter group.
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