- Everyone touts their software to be free.
- The rags (How to Geek, every other publisher...) fall right in line--'advertising' the software as free.
- Software companies have gotten very subversive about how they break you the news, at the very last minute, about how lucky you are to experience their software for, in the greater picture, milliseconds; or how the two features you can use or test now are nothing compared to the 98 features you can't.
- And it's one thing for software companies to offer their software for a price and another for them to allow you to rent their software--forcing you to adapt constantly to software changes some lacky, wanting to prove his/her genius, has decided might be useful or an improvement. (Oh yes, it's called a "subscription" to give it the patina that used to be associated with the New Yorker, Time Magazine, or the Wall Street Journal.
- And I'm expecting rent rates will be going up. Oh Wait! this has already happened, courtesy of Microsoft and it's Office line. (In fact, products have been eliminated, or offered as separate rentals in the suite...
Questions:
- Is there a way, are there ways, or are there precautionary measures you can apply, before wasting time going through the familiarization process, of knowing software advertised or reported as "free", isn't?
- And my latest pet peeve: What has happened to How to Geek? There are more ads--ads practically impossible to dismiss without implementing their download process (certainly on cell phones)) floating through this rag than wartime flotsam and jetsam (yes they're very different).
- The rags (How to Geek, every other publisher...) fall right in line--'advertising' the software as free.
- Software companies have gotten very subversive about how they break you the news, at the very last minute, about how lucky you are to experience their software for, in the greater picture, milliseconds; or how the two features you can use or test now are nothing compared to the 98 features you can't.
- And it's one thing for software companies to offer their software for a price and another for them to allow you to rent their software--forcing you to adapt constantly to software changes some lacky, wanting to prove his/her genius, has decided might be useful or an improvement. (Oh yes, it's called a "subscription" to give it the patina that used to be associated with the New Yorker, Time Magazine, or the Wall Street Journal.
- And I'm expecting rent rates will be going up. Oh Wait! this has already happened, courtesy of Microsoft and it's Office line. (In fact, products have been eliminated, or offered as separate rentals in the suite...
Questions:
- Is there a way, are there ways, or are there precautionary measures you can apply, before wasting time going through the familiarization process, of knowing software advertised or reported as "free", isn't?
- And my latest pet peeve: What has happened to How to Geek? There are more ads--ads practically impossible to dismiss without implementing their download process (certainly on cell phones)) floating through this rag than wartime flotsam and jetsam (yes they're very different).
My Computers
System One System Two
-
- OS
- Win11 Home
- Computer type
- Laptop
- Manufacturer/Model
- Dell Inc. Inspiron 16 7610
- CPU
- Dell Inc. 0FHWFD A01
- Motherboard
- Dell Inc. 0FHWFD A01
- Memory
- 16GB
- Graphics Card(s)
- 2.30 gigahertz Intel 11th Gen Core i7-11800H
- Sound Card
- Intel® Smart Sound Technology for USB Audio
- Monitor(s) Displays
- laptop (small) and 1 or 2 external monitors
- Screen Resolution
- -
- Hard Drives
- PC711 NVMe SK hynix 1TB 1.02 TB NVMe ANB2N582412102F0G_0001
- PSU
- -
- Case
- Laptop
- Cooling
- fan
- Keyboard
- External!
- Mouse
- External
- Internet Speed
- -
- Browser
- Chrome (Chrome profiles), Firefox (Bookmark Search Plus2), Edge (History page), Opera (annoying)
- Antivirus
- WinDefender
- Other Info
- Win11 Home 23H2 22631.3447
-
- Operating System
- Win10
- Computer type
- PC/Desktop
- Manufacturer/Model
- self
- Motherboard
- Gigabyte B75M-D3H
- Memory
- 8068 MB Usable Installed Memory
- Graphics card(s)
- 2.30 gigahertz Intel 11th Gen Core i7-11800H
- Sound Card
- Intel® Smart Sound Technology for USB Audio
- Monitor(s) Displays
- 3 Displays
- Screen Resolution
- n/a
- Hard Drives
- SSD and others (internal and external)
- Case
- Desktop
- Cooling
- Fan
- Mouse
- External
- Keyboard
- External
- Browser
- Chrome, Firefox, Tor, Brave, Opera, etc.
- Antivirus
- Win Defender
- Other Info
- Win10 & unfortunately OneDrive: Can't completely rid myself of this!!
