Ubuntu-LB piracy wasn't present

[Chris Crisafulli]

On Mon, 2010-05-31 at 15:04 +0100, ubuntu-lb-request at lists.ubuntu.com
wrote:
> I am also against the distribution of those windows apps.
> For example, who would use OpenOffice in the presence of Microsoft
> Office? 

Myself, and apparently a lot of others, here is some statistical data
from Sept. of 2007 http://stats.openoffice.org/

> Myself, I don't use it, I run MS Office via Wine.
> Who would use GIMP in the presence of Adobe Photoshop?

Again me, I can achieve a lot of the same things that an average
photoshop user can with gimp. There is a bit of a learning curve at the
beginning, but that held true for photoshop also.

> If piracy wasn't present, maybe people would have considered using
> free software. 

I mean, I really don't understand what the premise is within your
comments. Encouraging everyone continue running office on wine is much
worse in my opinion than suggesting someone use Open Office. Although it
is cool what wine is able to do, the way it can run m$ apps using m$'s
own api's, I am not sure that is going to help a new user that comes
over to Ubuntu/Linux. What happens when the minds at Redmond devise yet
another dependency scheme to keep people from using the latest m$ office
on wine, then where will they be? 

If the ability to steal software easily is an excuse for continuing the
use of proprietary software then I am not quite sure I can agree with
you, or even make an argument against it. If you don't believe that
Software developers deserve compensation for their work, based on the
licensing they choose, and you choose to ignore their EULA's, and
continue to use their software without paying... then I don't know what
to say in response. There may be some degree of truth in there on why
people are continuing to use photoshop and the like, I'll admit that,
but I know several graphic artist's that make their living using gimp
and inkscape without compromising their integrity.

Thanks for your time,

Chris Crisafulli
Ubuntu LoCo Council