Re: cpu-x

On Wed, 15 May 2024 13:49:34 +0000, RonB wrote:

On 2024-05-12, Andrzej Matuch <andrzej@matu.ch> wrote:

On Sun, 12 May 2024 18:07:49 +0000, RonB wrote:
>

The agreements are seemingly made in such a way that the corporations
behind them can, whenever they want, come after us whenever they
want. It's unlikely that they will, and that's why most people don't
bother to read them, but the power to do so is still in their hands.
That understanding is one which should push people to use free
software instead, but I think that most people won't bother unless a
corporation does, indeed, eventually come after them.

 
Yep. That's why I don't take it seriously. It's all skewed against the
customer. A contract is supposed to be an agreement between two
parties,
but these corporate wonks change the contract constantly, and it's
always "take it or leave it." In other words you buy the software,
plan to use it for several years and they pull the rug out from under
your feet by demanding you agree to a new contract (not the one that
came with the software in the first place). I think I use about two or
three proprietary applications (maybe more, but I can't come up with
more right now). One of those applications is Fade In. Basically one
man. I've mentioned a couple times to him that such and such tweak
would be nice — within a couple weeks there's a new version with that
tweak implemented. The license agreement is basically, don't give it
to anyone else — you can use it on your own computers (as many as you
want) and they can be any combination of Linux, Windows or Mac OS.
Updates are always free.
 
The other proprietary software (that I can think of now) is office
suite that comes with TextMaker. They provide five licenses that can
be divided between any combination of Linux, Windows or Mac OS
machines. They're a German outfit, and seem to be well liked. But I've
never read the fine print in their EULA. Maybe they have the "right"
to take one of my kidneys with two hours notice, who knows?
 
I would imagine that a lot of these EULAs could be challenged in court
if anyone cared enough to do it.

>
I imagine that corporations would make the excuse that if their EULAs
are challenged and they can no longer set whatever conditions they
choose on the user, they will simply stop producing software. They tend
to play with that kind of stuff quite a lot, telling whoever is in
charge that lots of people will lose their jobs, their livelihoods and
by extension lots of tax income if they don't play ball. The power
corporations have with governments, by itself, is a good reason to
avoid proprietary software if you can manage it. Companies aren't all
bad, but the bigger the company, the worse it gets.

 
Agreed. If you absolutely need the application there's not much you can
do. But just by using Linux I have very little proprietary software.

Even though I can afford to buy proprietary software, I usually find that
the open-source ones are either better or good enough. As long as they
don't eventually kill themselves as useful applications the way that
Thunderbird just did, I continue using them forever.
  

I recall one woman refusing to use proprietary software because her
financial information had repeatedly been stolen. The loss came as a
result of bugs in proprietary software and malware, and she swore
that she would never allow herself to be a slave of such
easily-compromised software again. I know that she has a blog, but I
don't remember what it was.

 
I believe that. My wife's credit card has been compromised five or six
times. She uses Windows and Windows applications.

>
Mine was compromised a lot in the 2000s, but it seems to have had a lot
to do with the machines used at gas stations more than anything else.
My wallet also did nothing to block RFID signals at the time. The last
time it was compromised was when I bought this laptop. My wife
eventually let me know that Best Buy, where I bought it using a credit
card, had a number of complaints over the years. Whoever purchases
there is basically give his credit card away to thieves... I don't know
if it's BestBuy itself or the terrible security on the site, but it was
compromised soon after the purchase.

 
It could be a coincidence. And she uses her card a lot more than I use
mine.

Yeah, you don't have much of a choice other than PayPal if you're making
online purchases though.