Just a reply to the last sentence (for the rest, no good, no bad, all good): you support development of freeware developments, find developers/people with the same aim, develop some real ideas/ethics by yourself, and in the end don't even feel comfortable with not paying for a MS product, pay for every OS update if you feel like running it. Seems being decent is the real revolution attitude nowadays ...

I use both commercial software and freeware. If I can't pay for let's say PS then I don't use it. Instead I was trying several freeware programs. I can't get used to the Gimp (freeware/open source). Once I found PSP I found it good enough to register it.

I don't think that by definition commercial software is better than freeware. These days we also have commercial freeware like WinAmp. WinAmp is a good product.

There is also some very good non-commercial freeware like the software developed by AnalogX. Another example of good non-commercial freeware is CoolPlayer. That product is now open source.

We all can give examples of freeware that is half finished and will never be completed.

I did release freeware in the past for CP/M and MS-DOS.

Recently I made some plugins for free (WBAmp and DXPlayer) and I am working on some new versions for the latest DX, OB and WB.

Another thing I am doing is a media-player for SD. We don't know much about its future yet, but we will see about that.

What bugs me is that some people think all software should be free. I am working for an independed software house (no, not SD) on a commercial game for several years now. We have a large team of programmers (user interface, AI, games engine, in-house utilities), graphics artists (2D and 3D and desktop publishing), sound technicians, marketeers, project leader, management, etc. Not only the program, but also the packaging, T-shirts, posters, web site and so on need to be done by people. It needs to be distributed, ads are needed and it needs to be sold. That costs money and people are dependent from it. They all love their job. I _know_ I will be mad when our game is on a warez site. In that case they are _stealing_ my daily bread. And oh, I am not rich, don't own a car (don't need one in Amsterdam) and don't want one.

Hehehe, Crea. Those are interesting remarks. The fact that everybody arround you does the same has nothing to do with it. But you know all that of course. It is nice to see someone not defending his own point of view. Yes, it is not ethical. You are right about that. I am glad we closed that discussion.

Yeah, you misspelled my name too. Interesting thing is that everyone I know (of all ages) and especially the fellow students at school use warez (all of them). Some of them start companies and then they proomptly switch to buying their stuff, because they fear the BSA. So they do not buy it to support the developer or for their own consiousness, but to avoid prosecution.

personally i like software that does what it is supposed to do well, and that i can understand.

if it costs money, i can afford it, and consider it worth the money i will buy it, although this isnt that common, appart from a good game now and then.

outside of object desktop my favorate programs are powerdesk (registered, since i use it continually) and vim (free, and invaluable).

my *issue* with commercial software is normally one of value for money. i dont have much spare cash, and object to paying for something that isnt worth it.

if it is free / demo and no use, then at least i found out for free.

I use whatever works. If freeware works as good as non-freeware I'll use that.

All things being equal, I prepare freeware.

But not because I think there's anything better about it, but because I don't pirate software so I would rather use what's free if I can.

one thing i like about paid software is that i have the right to expect support for it. if i haven't paid for something, if it's just offered for free, i really don't have any right to expect the devs to give me any help with it. of course, freeware devs often -do- help people out with things anyway.

i guess mainly i disagree with the idea that there is anything grandly noble about offering freeware. yes, it's very nice of the devs to do that, -very- nice. but after all, we're just talking about computer software here. if they were giving food away, for example, they'd be noble indeed. as it is, those that offer gratis apps, basically sharing the fruits of their hobby, are pretty cool.

one thing i've noticed is that freeware is a lot more common for windows than for mac os. mac users aren't surprised at all to be expected to pay 10 to 20 dollars for some little app. the major exception to this is the stimpsoft stuff, which is some of the most polished and excellent freeware out there.