On Tuesday, October 6, 2015 at 12:15:48 AM UTC-5, Don Y wrote:
On 10/5/2015 9:58 PM, Roger Blake wrote:
On 2015-10-06, Don Y wrote:
aggressively. Why did MSWord bury WordPerfect? Was it because
WP had some onerous licensing terms/technology?

My recollection is that it was because the initial releases of
Word Perfect for Windows were worse than atrocious.

Maybe for "plain jane" applications (office/productivity suites).
But, have you compared the features and quality of those "modern"
FOSS offerings with *paid* offerings from 20 years past?

FOSS does everything that I need, have not used commercial software
for many years.

How often do you draw schematics, design FPGA's, layout circuit boards,
design mechanical enclosures/injection molds, draw architectural
floorplans, publish "camera ready" documents, done any symbolic math
processing, etc.? (these being some of the things I've done in the last
12 mos).

I use FOSS tools to write software and build software systems (gdb,
gcc, eclipse, etc.). And, for some "commodity utilities" (mail,
news, www, etc.) But, beyond that, everything is COTS software.
I'd rather spend the money and have a tool that does what I *need*
and *want* than have to struggle with a tool that *aspires* to
do so "when it grows up" -- and having to "settle" for its
current state of completion.

A neighbor gave me a bicycle. I can get around town with it. It
would cost me NOTHING in terms of gas, licensing, insurance, etc.
Yet, I prefer to spend money driving a *car* -- so I can get where
I want to go without making *that* a separate chore unto itself!

frown

[Don't get me wrong, I am a huge proponent of FOSS! Every line of code
that I'm writing, every schematic diagram, PCB layout, mold assembly,
etc. are all destined to be released unencumbered -- not even with the
obligations like the GPL imposes! I just don't think FOSS is ready for
prime time, on the whole. There's no sense of ownership/pride in it
as a "product" (PostgreSQL seems to be a notable exception)]

Wow! You got some skills there feller. I was never able to get into programming except for simple binary to make early digital control systems to operate. I wasn't able to get into learning programming and to write code before I got out of the age group where I was inhaling information. I was too busy earning enough money so I could survive. The work you do is really interesting and I wish I could do those things because there were ideas I've had that I wish I could develop into a product. ^_^

[8~{} Uncle Envious Monster