As a Mac user, having also a Windows Notebook and developing MS .NET Software, I have to say the following:

One sould choose what one pleases and is most helpful. OS trolling is a nice friday afternoon habit of mine on certain german boards *cough* heise *cough*, but in the end I am open to solutions for problems.

If software is for free: Great. But some software is also worth buying and it doesn't has to cost a fortune. I bought a lot of tools in the low price range (up to 50$) and all are worth it - besides, as a professional software devolepers I use them to lower my income taxes.

@JP_S: Neither Microsoft nor Apple invented the GUI, that was Xerox - which also happened to have invented the Mouse.


Did I mention that Bill Gates himself invented the entire Internet on his own? 

Are you saying Skip invented the Mouse???         

Quoting EPKJ:

Quote:


I don't think much of some bum who uses an emulator to rob Microsoft of profits to which they are legally entitled. Without Windows to emulate, these bums would not need to worry about using an emulator to run Windows based freeware. Are you suggesting that Microsoft recognizes WINE as a legitimate program? If not, then this program is a form of theft. If nobody was paid for developing programs, there would soon be no new programs. You and your ilk may enjoy working for nothing, but rational individuals expect to get paid for their work.

It appears that they do recognise WINE and  don't claim it is the root of all evil.

Quote:

Q:  Will systems running Wine pass WGA validation?
A:

Wine is an implementation of the Windows 3.x and Win32 APIs on top of X and Unix. When WGA validation detects Wine running on the system, it will notify users that they are running non-genuine Windows, and it will not allow genuine Windows downloads for that system. Users of Wine should consult the Wine community for Wine updates. It is important to note that Wine users, and other users of non-genuine Windows, can continue to download updates for most Microsoft applications from Microsoft application-specific sites, such as Office Update.

Link

Ah, the realistic approach. 

I guess that's all it is. A simple matter of choice and consequences.

If I choose one OS, I know I'll be limited on the running of other OS's programs.
If I choose only freeware/GPL/GNU software, I know I'll be limited in the amount/variety of available programs.
But that'll be my problem, as it comes from my choice. And my choices are up to me.

Cheers,

Well I will openly admit that I never paid for the previous version of DVDProfiler, kept putting it off and putting it off.  The release of 3.0 finally shook me to my senses and I purchased it last night.  So far I am happy with the decision and who knows maybe in the future I will actually submit to the database!!! 

DVDP is a freeware with some features that are disabled. I agree with this format. It is one step better than a trial version. I used the program for about 4 months before I paid for the full version. This software reminds of the old days of a mom & pop shops. There is no corporate giant behind it, just a small, and by small i mean two, team of devs. I think that the with the free version you should also have limited use of the forums. Tech support and faq's.

It is nice to come and read the forums now and only run in to a few posts of people measuring their swords. It's amazing how many post there are on a forum that is a week old. How many bugs were found and reported. This is a community developed software.

that's all for now