Richard Stallman wrote:
When you buy a copy of a non-free program, you pay with your money and
with your freedom. You apparently don't assign much value to the
freedom that you would give up.
I really didn't expect to get involved in this, but if I were to buy a
copy of Hy-Tek's Meet Manager
(http://www.hy-tekltd.com/swim/mm/index.html), I would not feel any less
free than when I started. Granted, I would need to plunk down a
significant amount of coin for it, but having a copy of that software
would allow me to not only go forth and recoup my initial expenditure,
but turn a profit as well. But since there is no free (or otherwise
non-proprietary) equivalent, your version of freedom means the swim meet
never happens.
How, pray tell, would purchasing and using this software reduce my
freedom, given that not only does it allow me to make money doing
something I find fun, but also enjoy summer weekends in the sun
watchings kids have fun, too?
Oh, and before you even consider it, running the meet by hand is not an
option when you're dealing with over 20 teams and nearly 2000 kids, so
don't even go there.
