Didn't you know capitalism was bad?

Trolls on a mission..

Published on February 11, 2005 By Draginol In Personal Computing

..I'm in a ranting mood...stand back!

Over the years I've noticed a pretty consistent thing - there are people who really really have a problem with the concept of people making a living selling software.

As a result, some of these people make it their mission to go out and harass people (like me) who make a living selling software.

One example came up today. I am a news moderator on the popular tech news site Neowin.net. I think it's a fantastic site with an incredible staff of volunteers. But it has a sizeable user population of "l33t" users who a) Think they know everything on tech because, well they're 19 years old and they know everything doncha know? and Non-free software is the devil and any level of nastiness is justified to thwart the purveyers of evil.

One guy today went so far to create an account called "ToadLad" (my account name there is "Frogboy"). Get it? Toad = Frog. Lad = Boy. Very clever...

Since I post software news on Neowin I also post Stardock's press releases too. On other sites, our media relations goddess does this. But since I'm a news moderator on Neowin, it makes sense for me to go ahead and do this since, essentially I would be the one who would end up approving the final news item.

But this guy went onto a rant that essentially went like this "You just love to spam the world with your crap? You've already got Stardock.com and WinCustomize.com? Why do you have to spam your stuff here?" Here being a Technology NEWS site. And spam being news for software that is (god forbid) not free.

For those not ambitious enough to create fake users to troll the comments, you also have the people who insist on trying to rationalize that any good commercial product has a freeware equivalent. Photoshop? Oh, the Gimp is much better. Terminal Server? Loser, VNC. WindowBlinds? No, just hack your uxtheme.dll. And now with our upcoming Multiplicity program we've got the same crowd chimes in with "Oh, you can do the same thing with Synergy!"

In most of these cases (almost all these cases) these "l33t" users have never actually used the commercial product (see "evil" above). But they just know because they know everything. Who cares if the "Free" program has a lot fewer features or is flakey or requires hours of setup time to work? When you're 19, time is all that matters and $20 or whatever is big money to someone who's source of income is their mom.

I have nothing against free software. I use a lot of free software. In fact, I use free software whenever I can. I'll take free over commercial any day if it does what I need it to do. But there is nothing inherently magical about free software. And the downside is that most free software I run into (not all of course, there are very well known examples) have the 80% problem. They work -- almost. They tend to often be more proof of concept.

"Sure the screen flickers when you switch desktops and you can't play a full screen game while using it and you have to configure the machines using a text file with arcane configuration fields and it sometimes disconnects for no reason requiring you to reboot...but...it's free!"

I don't think I have a problem so much with the people who try to promote a freeware program. Hey, more power to them. I take the view that people who might potentially buy our product will try out the free alternative, try ours and make their own conclusion.

What I do have a problem with are the people who intentionally go out of their way to try to stifle my right to promote our software. The double-standards really irritates me. As if free software somehow deserves special treatment because it's "free". I don't think users should make such distinctions in terms of what gets reported, only in terms of when someone makes a decision on what to actually use.

Comments (Page 6)

WOWfactor.555.

on Feb 13, 2005

Admin Jafo Your Advice And Recommendations For Typing Responses In This Particular Forum Are Duly Noted And Appreciated. Your Knowledge Of The "Human Eye" And What It Can Handle Are Also Taken In To Account. Only, I Don't Use Font Variation, I Merely Capitalize The First Letter Of Each Word. Other Than That My Syntax Is Correct.

Running All Your Letters Together Without Spaces Is a Little Different From My Weird Capitalization Of Words. Indentation And Paragraph Rules Are All In Effect In My Replies. And I Would Like To Assure You That I’m Not Worried That My Responses Are Being Ignored As My First post Received Three Acknowledgments. But Thank You For Your Concern. (Maybe The Human Eye Is Evolving)

If I Do Loose Respect For This Atrocity, I Can Honestly Say It Wouldn’t Have Been Worth Much To Me Anyway.

Dragger201

on Feb 13, 2005

For myself, this whole software thing, I see in much the same way I look at books. I can get a book to read at no cost at my local library. But there are just some books that I want to read again and again(or it might be that I just like the look of it on my bookshelf). Those are the books I buy, and I don't mind paying the full price.

When it comes to software, it's the same thing. XP Pro was worth the price. Object Desktop is worth the price. So is the Nero Suite. And the upgrade for the M$ Office Suite.

But those who complain about the "evil" of those "for profit" companies, have some justification. There are many free apps that have been "killed" by the "for profit" companies. My favorite software company(Mircrosof) is , with out a doubt in my mind, the worst for doing this very thing. Another example is the current happenings with SCO and their lawsuits over Linux code.

But not all companies do this(though it does seem to be more and more prevalent). Stardock is a classic example of a better idea that was successfully marketed and not built on destroying others. Nero is another. A good product and a good price.

Ah, to be 19 and totally sure of myself again......no, wait....been there, done that.......and once was enough!!!!

Frogboy

on Feb 13, 2005

It is too bad that Cygnus doesn't know how to disagree without insulting or name calling people. Otherwise he might be a constructive force. But apparently he can't.

Koasati

on Feb 13, 2005

WOWfactor555.... I do wish you would listen to Jafo on the matter of your typing methods. I find your posts difficult to read, and very annoying. If you insist on continueing the practice, I'll just be skipping your comments in the future, and I could very well miss something important.

capitalizinG thE firsT letteR oF eacH worD, makeS abouT aS mucH sensE aS whaT i'M doinG noW......

Dr Guy

on Feb 13, 2005

capitalizinG thE firsT letteR oF eacH worD, makeS abouT aS mucH sensE aS whaT i'M doinG noW......

Typing in all lower case works for me. Or proper case. But yea, that is kind of annoying.

kona0197

on Feb 13, 2005

Citizen WOWfactor.555. - I would just like to add that I find your posts annoying as well. And I don't see why you have to capitalize each work. I try NOT to use the shift key as much as I can.

Essencay

on Feb 13, 2005

Essencay wonders why WOWfactor555 keeps posting lists of keywords...

Jafo

on Feb 13, 2005

Essencay wonders why WOWfactor555 keeps posting lists of keywords...

Hehe...that's about right...

If it's a deliberate attempt to annoy then it's an insult to your projected audience. If it's a simple habit, well, so is picking your nose. Please...not in public.

Jafo

on Feb 13, 2005

Just to be sure, I have not talked to the Admins badly at all. I have talked to you.

Cygnus ....maybe it's more a case of me [and Frogboy] having a thick skin .... or tolerating 'more' from your quarter because you HAVE been around a long time ... cutting some slack, as it were ... but really much of what you say, or rather 'how' you say it is frustrating at best and annoying at worst.

The wording is always pedantically adamant towards its truth. It's NOT an opinion, it is reality, ergo, anyone who disagrees is not just wrong, but delusional.

Much of this is not about a 'round earther' walking into a meeting of the 'flat earth society' with a smug grin....it's more like a tinfoil hat-wearer at a formal dinner constantly looking to the skies....

I keep thinking of the Python sketch.....'Argument?...this isn't an argument it's a contradiction'... '.....no it isn't'...

messybuu

on Feb 13, 2005

I just want to add a few cents:
Nothing's wrong with posting software news on a site about software news.
Free software is not inherently more noble or superior to commercial software. In fact, sometimes it's the opposite, as in the case with GIMP (which lives up to its name).
Some free software is arguably better than its commercial counterparts (i.e. FireFox to Opera), but some commercial software is better than its free counterpart (i.e. Microsoft Office to OpenOffice).
Proper punctuation, grammar, and spelling facilitate communication.
I'd rather pay hundreds of dollars for Adobe Photoshop than use GIMP, but since I don't have hundreds of dollars to spend on Adobe Photoshop, I'll have to go without either.

CygnusXII

on Feb 13, 2005

Jafo, how did you know I had on a TinFoil Hat? Also you strike me as a very smart person, and also very astute. I see your point. My Mum always told me I had that problem. Seriously.

The Frog and The Scorpion parable comes to mind. http://tinyurl.com/55y9p [allaboutfrogs.org]

CANTHUS

on Feb 13, 2005

I WHOLE HEARTEDLY AGREE WITH FROGBOY.I HAVE GLADLY PAID FOR WINCUSTOMIZE SOFTWARE I.E. WINDOWBLINDS AND AM GLAD I DID.THEN AGAIN I'M 46 NOT 19 SO WHAT DO I KNOW?GIVE EM TWENTY YEARS FROG THEY'LL FIGURE IT OUT...MAYBE.
ABRACSUS

on Feb 13, 2005

I can live with being Banned from Wincustomize

You would simply take it as "proof" that you was "right".

Certain people that uses non-english convention for capitalization is ignored.

talking the admins in the way you have would get you booted

If I was one, I would have hit that ol' big bannage button already.

Of course, that may be reason I'm not an administrator.

Jafo

on Feb 13, 2005

Rolf....hehe....probably....

Koasati

on Feb 13, 2005

Some free software is arguably better than its commercial counterparts (i.e. FireFox to Opera)

Well you'd get an argument from me on that......
I don't care for Firefox. Opera is fantastic. Browser, email, chat, rss, newsgroup, all accessable from the same window, very customizable..... voice activated browsing in the new betas (not that I really care about talking to my browser, but hey)....... I could go on...

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