this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
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I've always felt guilty by taking for granted the rare breed of virtuous humans that provide free excellent software without relying on advertising. Let's change that and pay, how much would I “lose” anyway?

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[–] CynicusRex@kbin.social 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

User @QuazarOmega already pointed this out, it depends on the definition of free, of which I'm positive the majority of my list complies with. Moreover, I did apologise for including Spotify, and offer alternatives:
“Despite their free version forcing ads, the paid version is too convenient, sorry. However, their UXD has become more annoying so I'm not sure how long I'll stick… If cross platform functionality isn't a big deal for you then consider Tidal which pays artists significantly more [5], or BeatSense for simple YouTube playlists and listening together.”

If there are better alternatives—to anything really—please share them instead.

Regarding Vivaldi: Why isn’t Vivaldi browser open-source?
Lastly, about Mega and Telegram, I added “breaks rule 3” to their listing. Mega is just remarkably convenient too, and unless the populace suddenly turns geek and they find out about the Matrix protocol, I'd prefer they use Telegram en masse instead of WhatsApp.

[–] kbal@fedia.io 12 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I don't really give a damn about why the developers of Vivaldi (and the others) chose not release it as free software. They made that choice long ago and have stuck with it. That's fine. It means I have no interest in their product, but to me it also means that discussion about it is out of place in an article with "free software" literally in the title in a forum called "linux" where the FSF definition of freedom should prevail.