Any 1 acutally buy software?

does any 1 acutally buy software anymore? I havent bought any software in years. I feel like im getting ripped off because you can virutally download any software out there.

 

I am guessing that you mean in retail store. If so, yea, retail store feels so expensive. If I want a software, I just use it for the trial demo and if I like it, I just buy it lowest cost as possible.

JC

 

Can't remember the last time l bought a piece of software.

 

Yea, I don't remember the last piece of software I bought, much of the programs I use are freeware and open source, so there would be no need to buy them as there are plenty of replacements and some I get free as part of the MSDN license my school has, such as virtual pc, visual studio, or even microsoft windows and the beta versions of vista. Some of the freeware I use are the GIMPShop, great replacement for Photoshop, Open Office, the Microsoft Office replacement, cygwin, such a great linux shell on windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP, and Perl a great open source replacement for IIS and the .NET suite, all packaged into one no install module called Uniform Server and of course Firefox and Opera for all your browsing needs, just to name a few. But there is some software that I would easily buy because it has impressed me so much, but some are just to costly that I have to hold back on it.

 

hi guys

just a friendly reminder to keep this thread above board. the second it turns into a piracy thread, it's closed.

 

I like to pillage ships that venture cross the Baltic Sea. I take their software as me booty.


Does that count?

 

AAAYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEE Maytee!

I bought Office 2003 in a retail store for 130. Online prices were no better.

Other than that, most software I buy, I buy online. Including ZA Pro, OD Plus, and some others.

 

the Baltic? bah ! everyone knows the good software is in the South Pacific !!

 

Universities usually sell bundles for awesome prices, I pick up a few for friends and family

 

Even though I dont own any illegal software, I cant remember when I actually paid for software. All my software was given to me either at computer shows, free with hardware purchase (nero with cdrw, xp home with laptop, etc) or freeware.

 

Well actually I do buy a piece of software from time to time. But mostly I try to handle things with freeware. If that doesn't do the job I dl trials and if I like I buy. My last buy was Magix Movie edit pro 10. A very recommendable program ;-)

 

Usually I use freeware. Instead of office I'll use open office. Instead of photoshop I use gimp. I usually get my software with new machines. The only software I really buy are video games

 

When we say we havent bought any software in years, it's not exactly accurate.

Everytime we buy a laptop, it comes with windows other OS pre-installed, and the price, therefore, includes the cost of that OS. Windows XP alone costs nearly 100 $, as far as I know. So, microsoft keep benefiting from its business.

 

Yes, I buy software. I try to use as much open-sourse and free-ware as possible. But when I have need for piece of software, I will buy it. I also pay for "optional" licences of shareware programs that I regularly use. I feel its important to support grass-roots programming.

I do not support pirateing, even though I am very sympathetic to those who are "philosophical" pirates who have serious issues with the "system." I have no sympathy for those who pirate because they are cheap or lazy.

That's my take.

 

i haven't bought any software in a while. the computer i have now had office professional 2003 on it when i got it, and since the reformat i just put the free office 2007 professional beta 2 on it rather than go out and buy office 2003 again. if i do decide to buy an office suite for my next computer though, i'm sure it will be through the university. i can get office 2k3 professional for $70.

 

I got a MSDN subscription through univeristy, I get almost everything I want for free

 

I own several real copies of XP and Halo PC and UT2k4. I also bought and downloaded PureVideo some time ago. Everything else I have is either free stuff or NFR copies. I have loaded a few pirated games in the past, but only to try them out. They rarely serve any purpose other than to tweak my hardware. Halo PC and UT2k4 are the only games I play with any degree of regularity, so I bought those. All my other gaming tends to be on my Xbox.

It's pretty suprising how little software one actually needs to buy nowadays. There are so many "armchair programmers".

 

Here's a somewhat related question:

How would you prefer to pay for software? Directly or indirectly (e.g. ads, as part of a hardware bundle, etc)?

In the end, these software developers need to make a living and software that yields no income (even popular software) falls into oblivion. Most 'free' sofware these days (which could include most of the internet) is paid for indirectly, case in point being Firefox (largely paid for by Google, which is paid for by Advertisers, who are paid by customers/you).

Even pirated apps results in higher prices for businesses (because if they aren't priced higher, the software company folds) which then eventually relay costs to consumers/you or taxpayers/you in the case of government.

Actually, one nice perk is that it's an implicitly socialist system where the high consumers subsidize the low consumers.

Before I ramble more, the answer is YES I still buy software.

 

I usually only buy programs I absolutely need. The last program I bought was Fair Use Wizard, and that was totally worth it. I use it enough and it works well enough that it was worth the money.

I typically only need some times of programs for a one-time thing (such as batch file renamers, converting videos to another format, etc.) so I can get away with just using trials. One thing I hate is when trials are so restricted. For instance, I would never buy a program for converting video if the restrictions included only converting the first 20 seconds of the video with a watermark on the screen and you could only use the program for 14 days. That isn't enough to prove it is worth the cost.

Adobe does it the right way. They give out month-long trials to extremely expensive and unbelievably powerful software with little to no restrictions. I downloaded the Premiere Pro 2.0 trial and the only things that I noticed that weren't available were the use of some plugins. That is crazy. I love Adobe, as a company. Their programs are top-notch and well worth the cost of a license to those people that can take advantage of all that they have to offer. If I ever get good with video editing and into movie making as a hobby, I will definitely buy a license for Premiere Pro.

 

shiver me' timbers south east asia is where big boats pass and we take their software as booty. big booty.

 

Yeah, I'm the same way....I'm down with as much open source as I can find...but sometimes you have to shell out the dough to get what you need. I was able to purchase the Macromedia suite through my school for a mere $100.

What did it cost you to get the MSDN through your school?

 

I got Windows/Visual Studio/Project/OneNote/Office/etc all for free through the MSDNAA program in my university. Everything else is either freeware or pirated. Most of the pirated software I don't feel a compulsion to buy since I rarely use them.. most commercial software is hideously bloated, so I usually only download to try. Firefox, vim, and putty are probably where I spend 95% of my time.

 

the winning post.

thread closed.