Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill14564
I may be misunderstanding your comments but it appears you are arguing for less use of technology. Wouldn't this be the same as saying backhoes are great but they put a lot of ditch diggers out of work or vaccines prevent illnesses but result in lower utilization of hospital beds?
"Free" software is rarely free, it typically comes with advertisements, in-app purchases, or performs better/best only with an upgrade to the next version of hardware. People hate the ads but will often go out of their way to avoid paying a subscription fee.
"Free" software is often is more like free samples of software. Microsoft 365 now comes with Copilot - or rather, it comes with a limited number of Copilot uses per month with an option to pay a fee for more access. So it is "free" until usage reaches a certain point and then it comes with a price.
Again, I may have missed your point, but to me it doesn't look like "free" software is really free. While "free" software does drive up usage, that usage is frequently tied to production of additional revenue.
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I use LibreOffice. It's completely free. It's open source, just like millions of other open source software programs in the world. The group that created it is a non-prof and they accept donations. If you want a "business version" then yes there's a license fee for that. But the home version is 100% free and functions exactly the same way Microsoft Office Suite for Home works (although better, in my opinion).