Thoughts On Obtaining Software Illegally

[Paul B.]

I'm on LinuxLite now on my own machine, and really enjoying it. My windows progs are utilities for working on other machines. I've even switched to LibreOffice, as I don't have to worry about compatibility with MSO, and to CherryTree over Evernote. And browsers these days (slimjet here) are almost like virtual machines and many don't need Windows. The really high-end software in technical fields is still payware, but for most people's needs freeware has reached very impressive levels. I'm really surprised how far Linux has come. We used to say it's almost ready. Now, it is ready. Most of my software budget now consists of donations for freeware development.

I think MS saw this coming and that's why they switched to the continuous service model. I'm very glad I dodged that bullet. They no longer include unsub links with their spam.