Forum Post

I recently read a post in one of the forums I frequent. A poster was bemoaning how expensive it was to use licenesed software on many machines if you happen to own an internet cafe. Cant blame the guy. It's true. Below is a copy of my reply to his post:

"Instead of looking at it that way, why not look at the bigger picture? The BSA and the NBI raiding teams are raiding places with pirated or illegal copies of proprietary software. Parang ganito kase ang proprietary software tulad ng M$-Windows. Kapag bumili ka ng Windows license hindi mo naman binibili ang software. Binibili mo ang 'right to use'. Maraming restrictions ang mga licenses ng proprietary software dahil dyan, tulad ng restrictions sa modifications at commercial use. Alam nyo bang bawal gamitin ang Windows sa commercial set-up tulad ng internet cafe dahil bawal ipaupa ang isang PC kung ang Windows ay licensed sa pangalan mo? Andun yan sa E.U.L.A. (End-User License Agreement) ng Windows 'yan. Kanya nagsulat na naman sila ng isang mapanlinlang na supplementary agreement (makikita dito: http://www.microsoft.com/philippines/internetcafe) ang M$.

Why not try open-source software (definition here: http://www.answers.com/open%20source%20software) that will set you free from restrictive licenses and fees? Use a free GNU/Linux operating system. O kaya, kung resolbado na kayong bumili ng M$-Windows na operating system, pwede naman kayong gumamit ng open source na office suite tulad ng OpenOffice (makikita dito: http://www.openoffice.org) na libre din kasya sa bumili pa kayo ng M$-Office na may P8,000.00 din yata ang halaga. Ganyan ang ginawa ng kaibigan kong may internet shop. Bumili sya ng Windows XP Home, dahil pinili nyang magpatali sa M$-Windows. That's his decision. It's his choice. Pero gumagamit na sya ngayon ng OpenOffice. Nakabawas sa gagastusin sana nya. May 21 units din sya, malaking halaga ang kapalit kung ibibili nya lahat ng M$-Office license.

Bottomline, you do have a choice about which OS or software you use. You can reduce costs if you go with open-source. You can free yourself from restrictive licenses and high fees. Kapag napababa mo ang halaga ng investment mo, mababawasan ang pressure na kumita dapat ng malaki para lang makabawi.

To find out more about your open-source options go to http://linux.org.ph/ and contact the group. Thanks for reading."