New software sells new hardware – but not forever
A few months back, I wrote that buying software is a big lie. All lies have consequences, of course. The worst kind of consequences are the ones you didn't see coming. So let's look at some of those, and some other lies they conceal.
As we said last time, you can't really buy software. Commercial software is mostly – but as some readers pointed out, not always – proprietary. Proprietary software has both pros and cons, but so does FOSS. It's not always all about money. Last time, we argued that convenience – minimizing expenditure of work, time, and effort – can be even more important than simple financial cost.
The differences between commercial software and FOSS also have lots of important consequences when it comes to hardware, too, though. With commercial software, the relationships are generally easy to follow. With FOSS, it's more complicated, with contradictory and conflicting effects. That's what I want to look at this time.