If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

Open source software is a communist plot - The Inquirer

This is enough to make me punt Windows off my PC and run Ubuntu as my main OS.

I already use Firefox, Open Office and Win7z so that apaprently makes me at Communist at worst and a Socialist at best because by not buying expensive bloatware I am harming the software industry.

What a crock of shit.

Build better software that works, isnt bloatware, and doesnt cost your first born male child to use, get rid of the draconian user agreements, then there would be no need for open source.

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

IS this an other piece of news that must be from some satire or humour show or what?!

Just... ugh. Sure, non-proft, open software... a community effort is something social and unselfish. But being social and unselfish isn't generally seen as something bad. Labeling them as commie or socialist is rather farfetched, those ideologies may have social equality/fairness as a main pilar but that doesn't make it the same. Infact itpretty much discredits whoever is making these statements as an uninformed, misguided person.

Even with commercial products, offering fair quality and a fair price under fair conditions (= quality. Ofcourse the balance may lay elsewhere from perosn to person depending on budget, use, experience, knowledge etc.) you'd still have people setting up a hobby project of their own. But yes, if enough people don't find the quality they are looking for, don't eb suprised that they will look elsewhere or setup their own program (hobby/non-profit or profit orientated).

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

Wow. This is just really fucking stupid. Put India on a watch-list just because they want to use free-ware? That's complete bullshit. Obviously they're doing it to save money and because the free-ware is almost as good or better as the stuff you have to pay for.

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

So basiclly, anyone who uses a good OS is a commie? The only reason I use Windows is for games, literally the only reason, its a POS for everything else. In my opinion.

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

The whole point of capitalism is that consumers get the best deal for themselves that they can. If there is a free version of software out there, then forcing people not to use it would be harming capitalism.

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

capitalism = making money. Not helping consumers.
Consumers NOT paying money to get a product is a fine example of Communism you Leninist bastards.

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

I love the wording used in this articles. The RIAA and MPAA cartels. :lulz:

Anyway, I don't the Free Software Foundation will let them get away with this.

Anyway, though Ubuntu 9 doesn't run well on my old machine (in fact, it's more unstable than Vista), I'm happy to be red for the advancement of the scientific front. I'm using Linux with its free text editors and compilers for my Master's project.

EDIT: After scanning this page more, I really wonder if this story is factual.

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

Quick someone summon Richard Stallman!

There are some cases where FOSS software is superior to commercial products(firefox, FLAC, VLC, ect), in other cases commercial software is better(MS office, engineering programs). If companies want to kill FOSS they need to do 2 things; offer a superior product and have it priced reasonably. Pricing products reasonably also reduced piracy. Some people would be willing to pay $250 for Photoshop, but not $600+. Because they don't have the money or feel like paying that much they pirate it.

I got to see Stallman last week when he came to my university to give a talk about copyright. He said that copyright is useful because it gives people incentive to make new things. However he against the idea of extending copyright beyond what it is now, and he does not like the lengths to which companies are going to protect copyrights because they are hurting consumers and hampering development.

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

I'm not to sure of the reliability of this article, but it's safe to say a lot of the larger business concerns are not supportive of open source software. Not just for the fact that it's free, but that it may be used as a back door for illegal software.

I had posted a thread awhile back about the ACTA, which is very much something that could squeeze out open source software. With the concentration of software into a small number of companies who can cry infringement on anyone else, they can definitely monopolize things.

The defenders of those measures argue that by having copyright protection, it gives incentive and rewards hard work. On the flip side however, it can squeeze out new innovation and petrify the industry.

But does it make one a communist or socialist for supporting it? I don't think so. Some of the proponents of open source have views that these things should be a public good of sorts, to be freely shared and improved upon by the people, but I think the benefits of open software can be appreciated by anyone. They have also given potential for third world areas who can't otherwise make software accessible to the people, either due to price or language concerns.

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

Well i guess i'm a commie then since every bit of software i have installed right now besides games and Windows itself are either open source or free.

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

I have one word for these people: Firefox

That is all. I guess there are a shitload of communists out there then.

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

They may have a point. Communism is often associated with something evil nowadays, but the ideology behind it is not bad at all. Open Source may be as close as mankind can get to such an ideal.

But to say that it is the enemy of capitalism is a bit flawed. Of course it hurts the big companies that earn tons of money with their software, but those companies are assuming that protection of intellectual property is a permanent thing that they should always enjoy. That is not the case though if you look at how patents are set up in most countries.

Also, OS software helps smaller companies that don't have the money to buy commercial programs. OS software can sometimes also be modified by companies and then sold in that modified version.

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

I wonder if this is partly due to our economic problems?

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

It's funny how capitalism has evolved from a descriptive term for an economic system to being descriptive of an ideology of total greed and dominion over the rights of others. Enemies exist only in relation to living things. Capitalism is not alive, it has no, 'enemies.' Rich fucks with large companies on the other hand...

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

Isn't that what the Soviet Union taught its citizens?

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

The CCCP would have wanted to espouse the idea that, 'capitalism,' meant a specific economic structure and that such a structure was bad - arising from and propagating the bad ideology, (greed, etc). My claim is slightly different, that, 'capitalism,' has become a term that refers largely to an ideology rather than an underlying economic structure.

Generally speaking you have two types of economic system; those that serve to concentrate power and those that serve to diffuse power. They're really just extremes on a scale of course. The CCCP was the former, and in that much is remarkably similar to the ideologies being espoused by certain business leaders in America.

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

I strongly disagree with your opinion of Windows, but that's another story. Well, it looks I must a follower of Marx cause I use Open Office. Before you know it, giving someone a gift will be frowned upon because they didn't pay for it :uhoh:

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

Economic problems? For huge ass companies that are total assholes?
:lolpoint:

Economic problems, if you go by the definition of the average person, do not exist for big companies. Apple's monthly profit dropped a couple thousand dollers? Who gives a shit besides idiotic rich people who can't understand the concept of poor. Like it makes a difference.

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

Well,at least in Serbia while there was communism everyone had a job and wasn't homeless.
Now when capitalism rules and Western countries (or should I say USA) are trying to have total control of it.
I think that USA's plan was to collapse USSR in first place,and they used Yugoslavia as tampon so USSR wouldn't advance to Europe.

Bit off topic here.

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

Communism = state control of the economy. Forcing people to buy stuff when there are free versions available = state control of the economy. I fail to see how people can claim than there is anything remotely capitalist about removing consumers' choice of product they use.

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

IMHO this is like saying "Hey instead of us actually getting off our fat asses and building a better working software program that is not bug ridden and full of security holes lets instead see if we can drive our competition out of business. No competition then we dont have to improve".

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

Wait, they made a institution to label communist countries? What the hell? Wait, I get free water at the park at the water fountain! COMMUNIST! I get free air! COMMUNIST!

I think that was more with Poland since they were moaning more. But yah, Gorbachov the man who made the changes to Capitilism hangs out in America because alot of people hate him in Russia and the former Eastern Communist Bloc, hell last time he went to an election in Russia he got 0.5% of the vote, really horrible.

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

If your talking about the US of A we have VERY little economic problems, now I'm not saying that to gloat to be so full of my self and self-absorbed, but this is EXTREMELY far from what happened on black Tuesday.

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

Well, think of it this way: many large companies and corporations lost money during this depression. Meanwhile, it costs a fortune to create and market these programs (no matter how crappy they are). So what do the companies do?

Typically, a recession should lead to lower demand because less people can afford to buy products. This means that prices should fall to meet the new equilibrium.

Unfortunately, they don't do this. They instead rely on the remaining consumer base for their profits, and thus increase prices. They can do this because the entertainment industry is ruled by an oligopoly, which is one step below a monopoly.

Companies in oligopolies can control prices despite better than markets with more competition because they have little competition. Thus, if they're losing money, they'll probably end up trying to suck money from consumers because consumers have little power in setting the prices.

So, if you were a large corporation and you were losing money, what would you do?

And this is exactly what is wrong with our economic system. It's too full of oligopolies. These companies have what you want, and they can sell it to you at high prices no matter how shitty it is. Who are you going to turn to? The other company making less shittier products at lower but still outrageous prices? They can also do whatever they want and get away with it. They'll force it on new PCs, they'll make you pay subscription fees for certain services, etc., and you can't do anything about it because what's the alternative? If you read up on oligopolies, you'll find out that the alternatives aren't very different (Though it's a Wikipedia article, it's very close to the truth).

And this is why Capitalism has become a staple for a economy of rich greedy fucks and the poor sheep that they feed off of.

But now they have free software entering the picture. It's competition, which threatens their price-setting abilities. So what do they do? They try to get rid of the competition. They can't buy the company out because their is no company or the creators don't want their money, so plan A won't work with them. So they go with plan B: They convince people that their products are better and that buying their crap contributes positively to the American economy. Because they pull shit like this and hope that it works, because Americans don't want Communism to erupt in America, and they definitely don't want to contribute to it.

The problem is now that our country may head towards another form of totalitarianism, a kind in which corporations, not single individuals, will govern our society. It's not certain, but you can't rule it out.

The best way to prevent this is to not buy their shit. Just say not. Vote with your wallet. Though you risk the company collapsing from lack of revenue and thus dragging the economy with it, the companies will probably be more concerned about making money that, unless they're complete morons, will finally give in to consumer demands. Unfortunately, the challenge will be to make enough people "vote with their wallets" in order to make a difference, and some people are not willing to give up what they want despite how much it costs.

In short, there is too little competition in many industries today, and this is why Capitalism has become what it is, and the only way to change this is either to create competition or stop eating the shit that they feed you.

Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist
 

If using firefox over internet 'splorer makes me a commie, then load me up on vodka and shout "not one step backwards" as I charge into Red Square.