this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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Easy (programming.dev)
submitted 3 months ago by federino to c/[email protected]
 
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[–] [email protected] 165 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I'd argue it's better to use actual alternatives. Half of the issue with free and open source software is that it's userbase is too small. If more people used it, it could actually improve in many ways.

Lets take gaming on Linux as an example. The userbase on steam is somewhere around 5%. So there is almost no incentive for developers to make games that run nativly on Linux. Its actually easier to run the games in a compatibility layer then to get a Linux port of a game. And although wine and proton work incredibly well, sometimes even running a game better than on windows; a Linux native version of every game would be ideal. Which will never happen with such a small userbase.

Next you have the terrible business practices of these companies. Even if you use the pirated versions. You are in their ecosystem and their community. You increase their profitability and their stock price simply by continuing the industry standard.

Pirated versions of software like this is excusable if you need it for work or sometihing. But imagine if instead of staying with the status quo, you use and help improve actual free and open source alternatives. Versons of software that don't steal your data or monetize how you use it by selling your input to others or stealing it for "AI" datasets.

Imagine using free and open source software that gives you feedom because your data stays on your devices, your creations belong to only yourself or who ypu choose to share it with, and you work with others to improve it; even if it's by just submitting bug reports. Imagine using something like that which you find so altruisticly beneficial that instead of pirating the software that has no respect for you, you donate money to the devs of free and open source software. Yes, I'm a pirate. But I do donate money to the right causes and something that protects my freedom is worth both my time and my money.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 3 months ago (5 children)
[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 months ago (2 children)

If you mean by that "This person is right" I totally agree with you

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago

Yes. Exactly like that.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I agree with everything, but want to add that 5% is actually a huge incentive and I'm very very optimistic about the future of linux gaming.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago

This is also data from an opt-in survey of only one kind of user. The real number of Linux users is probably somewhat higher due to the higher level of privacy conscientiousness in the community.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, but the gaming isn't bad on Linux.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

I agree. I only use linux. Which includes for gaming. And I game a lot.

[–] [email protected] 88 points 3 months ago

This is how we got these monopolies in the first place.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

free* as in beer, not as in speech. we still don't really own it.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 3 months ago (20 children)

No, they are not free, they are gratis alternatives.

"Free software" is one term, and it's meaning was defined in 1986 by RMS. Non of these software existed that time.

The word "free" in our name does not refer to price; it refers to freedom. First, the freedom to copy a program and redistribute it to your neighbors, so that they can use it as well as you. Second,** the freedom to change a program, so that you can control it instead of it controlling you; for this, the source code must be made available to you.**

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 months ago

Pirating a software still shows a company that there is interest in it. They will only know they are screwed when people stop buying and stop pirating

[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Wrong. I and other devs can modify free software to make it work on Linux. You can't do that with Photoshop and Premiere

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Zorin OS, Gimp, and the last one looks like Blender or DaVinci software.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Gimp is terrible. The UX is bad, the whole project just seems like an afterthought

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I used to feel that way about it 10+ years.

If you haven't used it in a while (1y+) don't even bother with the 2.10.xx -- I use Krita, GIMP, Inkscape -- did some image editing in GIMP yesterday and it went good.

Since the latter 2.99.xx releases my position & criticisms have changed. New UX, Non-destructive Layer Filters and the workflow has improved the software a lot. There is a ton of activity on their gitlab.

Its still not perfect but easily beats Photoshop Wine at all basic operations.

https://www.gimp.org/news/2024/02/21/gimp-2-99-18-released/

And since this post is about Photoshop. Don't pirate it. Be the change in the world you want to see. Let Adobe Rot in Pieces for decades of being anti Linux and anti FOSS despite popular demand and big Hollywood bucks.

Make them a relic of a long forgotten decade. The sooner we can move on the better.

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[–] verstra 19 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I wouldn't say that Linux & Gimp are objectively better, but they sure are better in the long run, since you plop "gimp" into a nix configuration and never have to deal with installation and cracking.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (6 children)

For most use cases of Photoshop, GIMP is not an alternative at all. For more basic use cases it is, but st that point you shouldn't be wasting efforts on Photoshop anyways, something like Paint.NET would be the recommended.

The closest we have for any Adobe alternatives are Affinity Photo for Photoshop, but that one is not free nor open source, but it's a lifetime pay once license. For some use cases of Photoshop and Illustrator you could use Krita, which is FOSS, and for Premiere there's DaVinci resolve, which has Linux builds and a free version.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (3 children)

For most use cases of Photoshop, GIMP is not an alternative at all.

Have you used GIMP seriously? And I don't mean installing it, getting confused because the menu layout is different to Photoshop and giving up in disgust after 10 mins.

I will readily admit that Photoshop is currently more capable and faster in some cases but to say GIMP is not an alternative is ridiculous.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Just to note here, resolve is also much better than premier, even the free version. Considering the Adobe pricing, buying studio for $300 is a better decision imo.

kdenlive is solid for the simple cut/fade type of work.

I'd also add something I've mentioned elsewhere for pictures - in case of raws, paint.net is ok, but imo darktable+krita is a much better experience.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

+1. Resolve is leaps and bounds ahead of Premiere and even After Effects when you consider Resolve has Fusion built in. I work on high level projects and often run into huge issues trying to work with Premiere projects. Most editors still use it simply because it was the first NLE they picked up. It lacks proper color management and its ability to export out to other software whether for post audio, color, or VFX is abysmal. I switched to Resolve about 5 years ago and while it isn’t without its faults, I’ll take it over Adobe bullshit any day. Sometimes I have to open editors premiere files to troubleshoot and I want to blow my brains out. Easily can wipe out an entire day just troubleshooting premiere projects. It’s funny because when I first got into the industry I was using Premiere and they were trying to push me to use Avid. I felt the same way about Avid as I currently feel about premiere.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I use Krita because I do hand drawn animation so I haven't pirated photoshop since like . . 2008. Also use a tiltpen with it to paint tangent normals for bump mapping sometimes. Once I obtained good drawing tablets and stopped painting with my mouse I stopped caring about photoshop and its features

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

You don't even have to pirate Windows. Without activation everything will work besides some customization (I think you could not change wallpaper) which you can easily bypass if you would really wish to.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

How can you pirate Photoshop and Elements? They are WebAssembly binaries that phone home before you are allowed to use them.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

You pirate the last commercially available versions that you can download and install directly on your PC.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

monkrus.ws idk how it works but it's even easier than installing the legit way.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The only wrong option is paying for it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

If one of the steps was leaking the source code then you could say that. Though who knows maybe AI reverse engineering will get good enough that we'll soon be able to turn the assembly code back into C++ or C. Then you can port the software to whatever you like.

With assembly you're very much limited to the hardware it targeted and without a huge amount of work the operating system that it targeted as well.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

This is my stance to people who have the Epic Games Launcher for the free games... Fuckin Black Flag is cleaner ethically than Epic Games

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