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Buy Once Software
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this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free_and_open-source_software_packages
Buy never software
Donate when you can tho
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.
I use almost exclusively FOSS and I have monthly/annual contributions set up for various projects.
Those are not purchases. You are not "buying" them. They are donations. "Buying" requires payment.
Act like a real man. But free and open source software because the devs deserve your money for their free work
This clearly isn't true though, otherwise there wouldn't be so much FOSS software.
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.
FOSS is notoriously low quality and can disappear at any given time when the developer(s) lose motivation. Don't get me wrong, I love them too, but I'll also gladly pay for something more polished and sustainable.
Right, because proprietary software is never abandoned. At least foss leaves you with the source code so you or other folk can carry on the torch in the original dev's absence.
Proprietary software is also notoriously low-quality and can disappear at any time when the developer loses motivation. Additionally, because the software is closed source, nobody else is able to continue the development of proprietary abandonware. On the other hand, abandoned FOSS projects can be forked and continued, which is something I see often.
This is just a false equivalency. Do both of those things happen in both cases? Sure. Does it happen WAY more often with FOSS? Also yes. Just go through F-Droid or Flathub and look at the long list of apps that haven't been updated in years.
Paid software is typically not something someone does in their free time to fill a resume for a real job. It's something they are able to dedicate real time to because it pays their bills and they have obligations to their paying users. They can also hire other people who also gets their bills paid and have similar obligations.
Neither one is inherently better.
You can also go on the play store and find a huge list of proprietary apps that haven't been updated.
You need some actual stats to back up this point. Plenty of proprietary software is unsuccessful because it fails to profit, so its shut down. At least FOSS software will continue as long as someone finds it useful enough to keep it going. Plus the obvious, that if you like a piece of software you can maintain it yourself.
Also saying that FOSS software is "notoriously low quality" is silly. There's tons of great and important FOSS software and plenty of shit FOSS software, just like proprietary software. Your comments just ignore how much proprietary shovelware exists.
Once again, false equivalency.
It's not silly, it's plain to see for anyone that has tried to use it. But it is hilarious to see you try to deny it.
Do you think people just enjoy throwing away money to give themselves a worse experience?
How is that false equivalency? Comparing fdroid to the play store is about as close as you can get.
Like I said, there is bad FOSS software, but that doesnt make it generally false. People pay for software that doesnt have a good free alternative, they pay for support, and often they will pay to use software that has good marketing because they are simply unaware of the alternatives.
I'm not saying all FOSS software is great, but lots of software does have great FOSS options, for example, Firefox, Blender, and Bevy. Obviously there are also examples of proprietary software without a great alternative, like Photoshop. I like FOSS, but I don't avoid proprietary solutions that do a better job. Believe it or not, I still end up using mostly FOSS software.
You're not backing your points up with any actual reasoning or examples while also being condescending about it.
The false equivalency is not that the two aren't comparable products, the false equivalency is that they have those problems at similar rates, because they don't.
My reasoning is experience. FOSS has this reputation among most people. Only people who are willfully ignorant can't see it. I could give you examples all day but it'd just be cherry-picking and I'm sure you would remain unswayed. Feel free to ignore me, I'm just saying what it is.
I am genuinely curious why you think people pay money for worse software though...
That was my entire point. The person I was originally replying to seemed to suggest exactly that.
Source? Every commenter here disagrees with you, so it seems like your wild claim is not supported by any evidence.
Oh, well if all 2 of you disagree with me, that must mean that I'm wrong and not that you want to lie about it so that more people will use FOSS.
It's actually 5 people vs. you right now, and anyone can count to confirm it. Calling out the fact that you have produced zero evidence for your wild claims is not "wanting to lie", it's just stating what any observer can see.
You said that your "reasoning is experience", so let this conversation be an experience that challenges your perception of what others think about FOSS.
It isn't.
You really gotta quit with the sealioning. I've already explained this several times. I'm not doing it again.
I'll do that but the cards are still stacked against you.
The 5 people who disagree with you:
And, no, you making baseless assertions while attacking everyone who disagrees with you does not count as evidence.
I haven't "attacked" anyone. Just stated that they're wilfully ignorant, which is true. However if when you were looking around for all of those comments you were paying attention, you would've seen people throwing out extremely unnecessary and vulgar personal attacks at me.
You keep asking me for evidence, and I keep telling you I don't have any. I'm not writing a fucking college dissertation, it's an internet comment. Since this conversation is going nowhere, and since you continue to sealion me with this nonsense after I've asked you to stop several times, you're going to be blocked as well. Have a nice evening.
That's not what a false equivalency is, but ok.
Most people don't have any clue what FOSS is. They just want software, and if its free and works, they'll like it.
I provided two reasons in my post. Superior marketing and professional support.
Ok, but thats not what you went on to say.
You are not arguing in good faith, I don't care to continue going in circles.
Lol that's not a false equivalency. You don't get to just decide words mean things they don't because it sounds nice in your head.
When you look at any app store, you'll find that the many apps that are infested with ads, spyware, malware, and dark patterns are pretty much always proprietary. Conversely, any FOSS application that tries to introduce such garbage would be forked to remove these offending attributes, which makes FOSS much higher-quality than proprietary software in general.
You are using false equivalence by incorrectly implying that proprietary software is commercial while FOSS is not. Both FOSS and proprietary software can be sold and commercialized with various monetization strategies. For example, you are currently using Lemmy, a FOSS social network whose development is funded by donations. Nobody here believes that Reddit is better on the basis that it is proprietary adware instead of FOSS.
Free and open source software licenses provide users the right to use, modify, and redistribute the software. Proprietary software does not. That difference makes FOSS inherently better for users than proprietary software.
Right, because FOSS software never has any of that...
That's not how that works. There's plenty of paid software that doesn't have any of those things.
You're just arguing pointless semantics now.
You're cherry-picking.
No. It absolutely does not. Why do I care if you can "use, modify and redistribute" trash software?
FOSS adware and spyware apps are rare because it's trivial to fork it and remove the undesirable elements. Users have every incentive to use the ad-free and spyware-free forks, which eventually causes the superior user-friendly forks to overtake the originals. However, proprietary adware and spyware apps cannot be forked in the same way, preventing users from stripping out the ads and tracking. The ability to use, modify, and redistribute "trash software" allows anyone to transform FOSS with undesirable elements into excellent software by removing such elements, whereas proprietary "trash software" remains trashy.
"not updated in years" didn't used to be considered a bad thing. Why is it one now?
If something works well for me as it is and runs locally in a way that doesn't open itself up to remote exploits, I don't necessarily need it to keep changing all the time. Even if it would be nice if it had more features, the software works fine for me as it is. I don't need those updates now or this year.
The only true "need" is that it doesn't stop working for me when the various platforms or compilers change. I used to use a Python2 program, and I could keep using it for about a decade after its last update, but eventually I did need to move past it because Python3 had long since replaced it and distros stopped shipping Python2. A year or two of no updates it's nothing.