Re: Some free software is pure crap, just like proprietary.
On Thu, Jul 22, 1999 at 04:04:00PM -0400, Dale Scheetz wrote:
>
> Am I asking too much to want to be able to go to a vendor and negotiate a
> sale, or simply the exchange of "secure" information?
No, but you are probably asking the wrong persons.
As much as I have positive feelings for your rant, Free Software isn't a
"tell me what you want and we will do it for you". It is also not a "we have
the best software of the world" (here I disagree with ESR and agree with
RMS, if you prefer to think in categories).
It is a "hey, come in and join us. It is possible for you to add the
stuff."
So, the best thing for you is to complain at the ecommercial sites. It is
their responsibility that you can make use of their offers. They could
collaborate and pay a programmer to add the missing stuff to free browsers,
for example. Or to fix their web pages. Whatever is more appropriate. They
could pay the W3 consortium to develop free specifications for trading over
the web.
In Free Software, demands make little sense. Please don't take this
personal. Everyone sometimes things: "Wow, that sucks. Why doesn't it let me
to do *this*?". Well, but I couldn't tell you if I said this more often
about proprietary or free software :)
Anyway, the problem is that for trading over the web, as always in
capitalism, only market share counts. So, if you can't convince them that
they will open up a huge userbase if they support free browsers or make free
browsers support them, you won't come far. The best thing to do is to write
them an email telling them what you would buy if tehy would support your
browser.
Thanks,
Marcus
--
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