[vox] Open Source Flyer

[Robert G. Scofield]

On Tuesday 02 December 2003 00:24, Ken Bloom wrote:
> I'm giving a pursuasive speech to my Public Speaking (CMN 1) class on
> Wednesday, and I'm going to convince people to try out open source
> software. 

By coincidence I TA'd that class for 3 years.

I'll give you a rather unusual reason for using Open Source.  About six months 
ago I istalled a CD burner on two computers in this house.  One was a Plextor 
and the other was a Memorex.

I chose a software program from the Plextor CD and was concerned that the 
license agreement authorized the software to go online at times to check to 
see if I had any illegal software on this computer.  The license agreement 
authorized the software to then disable any illegal software it found.  While 
I do not have any illegal software on this computer I did not like that 
invasion of privacy, and so chose a second software program on the CD.  
However, the second program also had the same invasive license agreement.  I 
felt I had no choice in the matter, and so ended up installing the first 
program.  BTW, the Nero software that came with the Memorex CD had no such 
provision in the license agreement.

Recently I had to reformat the Windows partition on this dual boot computer.  
I use Windows for my business.  I have decided not to reinstall any Windows 
CD burning software.  Through experimentation I have learned that I can boot 
this machine into Linux and use the great KDE K3b CD burning software to back 
up my Windows files.  Thus in the case of CD burning open source software 
gives me a greater sense of privacy and control over my computer.  And this 
is important to me even though I comply with the licensing agreements I have, 
and even though my software is legal.

Bob