Why don't you pay for software?

I pretty much am living on ramen.

On Windows, I hated shareware with a passion. I would go out of my way to avoid having to pay for anything. Software was something to be hoarded. Things could not be more polar on the Mac. Mac software is often of such high quality, and with great attention to detail, that you _want_ to pay for it. With no spyware, nor viruses on the Mac either, you are not in a constant state of paranoia about what you are installing onto your machine.

My ethos is this: If you don't want to pay for the software, you don't really need it.

as a 16 year old who loves to make movies, there is a perfect balance between the need for hardware and software. both are can get very expensive depending on what you want the quality of your final product to be and your skill. i film and edit with some financial help from my parents, but most of my equipment (prosumer, i.e. canon gl2, 24" imac, prosumer tripods and hard drives) is bought with my own money. i truly wish i could place an order with apple or b&h for the full final cut studio box or CS3, but that would ring up several thousand dollars for something that, in 4 hours via xtorrent, acquisition, limewire, etc can be on your computer, completely cracked. its sad and illegal, but i like to think that if i make it in the film industry i will one day send a check to every company i pirated software from.

I'm too young to have a means to pay the people that I take donationware from (short of mailing in cash, but it's universally agreed on that that's not a smart idea) because I'm only 16- in the country I live in now that's not old enough to apply for a credit card, and despite having a bank account I'm not fully comfortable with Western Union/international bank transfers. I fully intend to do so when I become old enough to have a credit card.

Depends on what software we are speaking of...
I DID pay full retail for Photoshop. And I bought the "deluxe" versions of FireFox and Ubuntu, with the nice retail box and printed manual.

I do NOT pay for Microsoft products and a quick poll shows that neither do my friends or family. Should Baller resign and the company policy does a reversal from "*uck the user, who cares if it works" to one of sincere quality and user accommodation, I will reconsider my pirating ways.

At last report, the president of Microsoft, a multi billion dollar worldwide corporation, is currently threatening to sue individual Linux users - NOT the Linux distributors like Dell - me the long suffering end user. With FUD like that, pirating Microsoft products is a pleasure.

Ramen and Kraft Dinner for me, unfortunately.

Once I graduate and get a Real Job in the Real World, I'll gladly donate. :) (I do like a lot of the free software, so I might not buy, though.)

As you will notice from the replies to this thread... most of the people who are not paying for software are young people... Businesses pay for software... business run the computer industry.

@Todd... Its funny how you refuse to pay for MS products but use them all the time... its kind of stupid to sit there and slam a company for their business practices while using the software they made... Microsoft is a VERY big company that employees TONS of people... not to mention how many people make a living off the developer products that MS makes available to the community...

All you Linux lovers out there are so quick to bash MS but step back and think about the # of jobs that MS keeps in this country with its crappy software and business practices.

Don't be so quick to fall in love with Linux because its free... software cannot be free or people will not spend the time developing it... good software costs money and people will pay for it if it fills a need... that includes an OS... don't forget... you get what you pay for.

As someone who enjoys creating artwork through various software such as Adobe and 3D Studio Max....The pricing for the these pieces are built towards "big business" and not the average customer who has a big bank account to shell out the $1499~ for CS3 for example.

And certain things will always be bootlegged.

Example:

I will get Heroes:season 1 and run it off of blu-ray.HD-DVD fails and I want to run want I want to watch on my Blu-Ray player.

Unreasonable pricing and consumers worrying about getting the best bang for their buck also plays a role.

I've often times have bought fake CD's and will end up buying the real one if I really enjoyed listening to it.

I also am too young to have any form of payment. I would gladly buy some cheaper pieces of software however have no real means of donating...and to be honest I am a little afraid of posting credit card etc. information online, especially in any place other than amazon.

"...Don't be so quick to fall in love with Linux because its free... software cannot be free or people will not spend the time developing it... good software costs money and people will pay for it if it fills a need... that includes an OS."

Sir I am forced to use Microsoft product for work, which translates to its use at home. If I could do work on Linux I would trust me.

As to good software cannot be developed for free - please note the Google Toolkit and the Yahoo developer network resources, all free and of the highest quality. Ubuntu is of SUPERIOR quality when compared to Windows XP, try it yourself and see.

If all those Microsoft jobs depend on criminal activity ( Racketeering and extortion of OEMs, selling software they know is defective ) then let's get rid of all those jobs, the world would be a better place for it.

As a 17 year old student I don't have very many needs from software, and all of them can be filled with free software. If I don't pay for software it's not because I don't need it, but because I want it. For example, I could definitely get by with Firefox and some plugins, but I prefer using Safari with a cracked version of Saft and the MacHeist version of 1passwd. I don't NEED those, but I want them and appreciate them.

As for donationware, I am simply unable to pay for it. I have no source of income and no way of donating. I fully support and appreciate the developers, but everybody says "If you can, please donate."

Who's "WE" who wants to hear from whomever is their target?

I use WinXP that came with the laptop, LOADS of software that costs $0, and Enso Launcher (http://www.humanized.com) and AnyDVD (http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html).

I think Enso Launcher is totally worth its price. But it was hard to shell out for AnyDVD; although in the end I AM happy with it.

Oh, and Intervideo's WinDVD is useful on the rare occasions where VLC fails, but again, it came with my laptop.

There ARE just a couple of things that I've found useful and are donationware, or postcardware. And I probably will donate/send a postcard if/when I get those apps.

@Todd - "If all those Microsoft jobs depend on criminal activity ( Racketeering and extortion of OEMs, selling software they know is defective ) then let's get rid of all those jobs, the world would be a better place for it."

I'm talking about the millions of people who develop software for Windows using Visual Studio, etc... The millions of small businesses that make a living developing products for Windows... even OSX... if you promote the idea of free software/OS then you further promote the idea of not paying for software... There is a HUGE industry in this country/world that exists because of MS. Most people who own windows paid for it and understand the value of paid software/support... Linux doesn't carry that same perceived value. Google and Yahoo only make free web applications because they can support them with Ads... personally I don't want ads in every program I use. That is just pushing the burdon of payment off onto businesses...

Oh and I have tried Ubuntu... why bother trying to use it when I would have to find alternatives to all the applications I currently use? The only reason OSX works well is because it ISNT free... and right now its the only mildly successfull unix/linux OS out there... When people like Adobe and other highend software makes start making versions of their products for Ubuntu you can start to consider it a mild success... but why would Adobe make a $700 graphics package for an alternative OS whos major selling point is the lack of cost? Where is the benefit for Adobe to try to get into a market flooded with consumers who expect free software?

Windows: I use as much freeware/OSS as I can on Windows and as little MS as possible. I won't pay shareware on Windows b/c the prices are crazy high for bad quality and low usability software. Mac freeware prices are much more reasonable, usually.

Mac: I have paid for a piece of shareware on my Mac (Unsanity's WindowShades), but only one. I should probably give a buck here and there to donationware, I guess I simply didn't think about it since it's advertised as free, you put it off and never get around to it.

A lot of OSS, I think, is done by enthusiasts who aren't in it for the money (read Inkscape's take on community software). I have participated in a couple of OSS projects with bug reports, etc. and consider that contributionto the community a form of payment.

I also have some scripts and my first attempt at Cocoa programming that I plan to put up on the web for free, again to give something back to the freeware community.

As a youth I pretty much didn't pay for anything. As I got older I started to buy shareware programs that did what I needed--a number of which I still use. I'm increasingly prone to using free and FLOSS programs.

Most donationware programs, I confess to forgetting about. I use it, but forget to head back and drop a little something in the bucket. Having said that, I get really annoyed by nag windows. I guess I'll make it a project to go through my software and check for donation buttons.

I like finding a bargain as much as the next guy so there are some free applications on my machine, but not many.

I don't mind paying for what I use, and so will usually pony up and splunk down the cash which means the software has to be really necessary and there isn't a comparable freeware version.

I'm the type who will try something for free but then gladly pay for a better UI, more supported app or whatever.

Case in point: I searched out some free writing applications to replace MSWord. Found some, tried them out. But they all were lacking. I knew they were freeware so there wasn't as much attention paid to aesthetics and the UI. I ended up continuing my search and finding an application that did what I needed better because it was a commercial application (PageFour).

I think once a developer decides they want to sell their product, it changes many of the basic decisions about how it is going to look and act and their product looks better and acts better than its freeware counterparts. After all, they are now trying to compete in an arena with the "big boys" and their app usually reflects that.

I haven't found many freeware apps that I would consider paying for if they weren't free. The only reason I use the few that I do is because they are free, not because they are better.

Any serious work doesn't get done in the freeware, it gets done in what I was given when I brought my PC or what I have paid for since.

I used to develop donationware for the Palm PDA and am now developing software for Mac OS X. All my sw is donationware which means that it is optional to pay for it. I program for fun and for the challenge as others may like to solve puzzles. The donations are nice to help me pay for my website but are too little to even cover most of my cost. It could be that many donationware developers are like me and maybe not. I like doing it but luckily am not dependent on it. As for paying for large commercial packages, I understand that when someone is really strapped for cash then it's tempting to download it illegally. It is however still theft, just like stealing from your local store. It's only more anonymous which is in my opinion the reason why it's so rampant. But, I also believe that some of the major sw makers actually don't mind so much if younger people use their sw illegally as it ties them to their products and are more likely to become paying customers later.

Mainly because I'm sick of paying for software that sucks. I pay a good chunk of change for something that doesn't work well, doesn't have have features I want, doesn't have support, the company goes out of business, I don't get upgrades for, etc.

There are some great pieces of software I have no problem paying for, look at Divx Pro. I love that, free upgrades, great support and a nice communication from the company.