[Sussex] Free Opera registrations

[Geoffrey Teale]

Steve Dobson wrote:
> I know what you mean.  I can't find the time (or the hardware) to
> try it out on.

I think there is a higher fear factor involved in flashing your BIOS as 
well.

> I don't disagree with you but I still think that it comes done to a
> personal interpretation of "superior".

Obviously, yes this is true, though I'd argue that compared to anything 
Firefox would still come out as pretty darn good.

--- %< -----
> At the end of the day I think we agree (haven't we both had this
> rant before?) that the most importing thing is peoples right to
> choose which software they use.

Ah, yes, but given that Linux is Free Software, that this is a Linux 
User Group and that someone was drawing peoples attention to an offer 
designed to encourage them to adopt a piece of non-free software, I felt 
that it was my duty to draw their attention to the following:

  - Opera are making you a strictly limited offer to get your first hit 
for free in the hope to get you to pay them money for the next one.
  - Opera are asking you to sacrifice certain freedoms in order to use 
their software.
  - There are comparable alternatives that don't require you to 
sacrifice these freedoms.

I think this information is necessary to make an informed choice. 
Moreover I stand by the statement that choosing non-free software over 
free-software when there are no significant advantages to using the 
non-free software is mind-numbingly stupid.

I don't begrudge Opera a bit of business, I just think propagating an 
advert for non-free software through this list unchecked is probably not 
a good idea.

BTW, hey guys, Microsoft are giving away Internet Explorer for free! 
Like l337 d00dz.  W00t!

OK, OK.. I'll stop stirring now :-P

-- 
G.J. Teale
Development Team Leader

Cmed Group Ltd.
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