On Tue, 9 Mar 2010 04:26:12 am Leslie Newell wrote: > > This actually raises a good point about closed/licensed software: > > can you try it first? > > I won't buy if I can't try it first. Even Windows offers a trial > period.
What? If you're talking about the period between *purchasing* Windows (usually as part of a bundle with the computer) and when it goes into lock-down mode because you haven't registered, I think you're missing the point of "try before you buy" is that you get to try *before* you buy. If you're talking about somewhere I can download an official demo version of Windows, I'd like to know where this is. > > (2) Interoperability, can you import/export data correctly from any > > propitiatory formats? > > Depending on what is being stored, proprietary formats are ok where > it would not be useful for other packages to have access to the data. Only if you don't care about accessing your data in ten years time. The period of the 1980s through to the 2020s (at least!) will be a future dark age to historians. So many of our historical records are *already* unreadable, after a mere decade or so. Paper, vellum and papyrus lasts for centuries when treated well, electronic records become obsolete and unreadable before you can say "what do you mean we don't have a computer capable of running the only application that can read the data file?". -- Steven D'Aprano _______________________________________________ Pan-users mailing list Pan-users@nongnu.org http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/pan-users
