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Going Legit

S

SXMP

Senior member
Alright guys, well it finally happened. Let's say this "friend of mine" who I'll call "PMXS" decided that owning music, movies, and software illegally was immoral, unethical, and un-Christian. They went and deleted all their music ripped from cds from friends (about 10gigs worth), deleted any movies they had copied from NetFlix, and started to purchase music and movies instead.

Along the way they realized that owning "cracked" versions of WinXp Pro, Office, Photoshop, Premiere, Flash, Nero, Norton, ACDSee, Mathematica, etc was also bad. Basically my friend was wondering if anyone else has gone through the same process of getting rid of software they don't own. And what alternatives there were to programs that he used almost daily.

Some ideas he came up with:
Use a Linux Distrobution, free Gimp, free OpenOffice.

Here's an open invitation to any more suggestions. Help me, er him, still be able to be productive, but do it honestly. Thanks!
 
Originally posted by: notfred
Does you "friend" happen to be a college student?
Click to expand...

UIUC student actually.

Either use campus computers or search for freeware that does want you want. The linux route is a good way to go as well.
 
Just buy software you can't get for free through your college. I can get XP Pro, Office 2K3, and any other MS software for $45. Give it a shot, but definitely try to get as much as you can for free (Linux, GNU software, etc.).
 
Originally posted by: SXMP
Alright guys, well it finally happened. Let's say this "friend of mine" who I'll call "PMXS" decided that owning music, movies, and software illegally was immoral, unethical, and un-Christian. They went and deleted all their music ripped from cds from friends (about 10gigs worth), deleted any movies they had copied from NetFlix, and started to purchase music and movies instead.

Along the way they realized that owning "cracked" versions of WinXp Pro, Office, Photoshop, Premiere, Flash, Nero, Norton, ACDSee, Mathematica, etc was also bad. Basically my friend was wondering if anyone else has gone through the same process of getting rid of software they don't own. And what alternatives there were to programs that he used almost daily.

Some ideas he came up with:
Use a Linux Distrobution, free Gimp, free OpenOffice.

Here's an open invitation to any more suggestions. Help me, er him, still be able to be productive, but do it honestly. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Damn commies😛


Seriously, install mandrake. It has everything you..err PMXS needs...
 
Originally posted by: jumpr
Just buy software you can't get for free through your college. I can get XP Pro, Office 2K3, and any other MS software for $45. Give it a shot, but definitely try to get as much as you can for free (Linux, GNU software, etc.).
Click to expand...

Their pricing isn't nearly as nice.

The one reason I don't want to leave school is the cheap software. Nothing like $5 per title.
 
For music, www.bmgmusic.com and Columbia House can be good ways to build your collection back up -- even after the free CDs BMG has a "3 for 1" sale every month, which after shipping and tax works out to about $9/disc.

Also www.deepdiscountcd.com and www.deepdiscountdvd.com, but always compare price with Buy.com and Amazon.com

One benefit of going legit is you can rip much higher quality MP3 / AAC / FLAC versions of the CDs than 128 kbps garbage from the p2ps.
 
Originally posted by: minendo
Originally posted by: notfred
Does you "friend" happen to be a college student?
Click to expand...

UIUC student actually.

Either use campus computers or search for freeware that does want you want. The linux route is a good way to go as well.
Click to expand...


UIUC? As in, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign? If so, that's where I am too. Sweeeeet. :beer:
 
Originally posted by: minendo
Originally posted by: notfred
Does you "friend" happen to be a college student?
Click to expand...

UIUC student actually.

Either use campus computers or search for freeware that does want you want. The linux route is a good way to go as well.
Click to expand...

Thats true, how'd you know that. And yes, I'm looking into UIUC's MSDNAA program. Most likley, I will be able to acquire WinXP Pro.
 
Originally posted by: minendo
Originally posted by: notfred
Does you "friend" happen to be a college student?
Click to expand...

UIUC student actually.

Either use campus computers or search for freeware that does want you want. The linux route is a good way to go as well.
Click to expand...

Then he should head over to the college bookstore where he can get a copy of MS office for as little as $15, and almsot definitely not more than about $79. Similar discounts can be had on most of the other software in that list.
 
Are you a student? If so, see if you can buy educational licenses for some of your software (WinXP, Office, etc). As far as some of the other packages go, do you need them to do work? If so, get your employer to buy them for you. If not, decide which ones you can't live without and start saving your money. Norton can be had for very little $$$ if you watch sales.

Replacing Mathematica will be tough. Now is your chance to learn a real programming language and start using the free linux compilers, such as GNU Fortran or C++. You can write programs to solve any problem that Mathematica can solve (except for any symbolic stuff). Graphical stuff can be done in Excel or StarOffice.

You are doing a very admirable thing. Best of luck. My advice is to determine what you can live without (as in what you don't need for work on a regular basis) and get rid of it. Buy licenses for the rest of the software that you need.

Ryan
 
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
For music, www.bmgmusic.com and Columbia House can be good ways to build your collection back up -- even after the free CDs BMG has a "3 for 1" sale every month, which after shipping and tax works out to about $9/disc.

Also www.deepdiscountcd.com and www.deepdiscountdvd.com, but always compare price with Buy.com and Amazon.com

One benefit of going legit is you can rip much higher quality MP3 / AAC / FLAC versions of the CDs than 128 kbps garbage from the p2ps.
Click to expand...

IRC baby 😉
 
Originally posted by: SXMP
Originally posted by: minendo
Originally posted by: notfred
Does you "friend" happen to be a college student?
Click to expand...

UIUC student actually.

Either use campus computers or search for freeware that does want you want. The linux route is a good way to go as well.
Click to expand...

Thats true, how'd you know that. And yes, I'm looking into UIUC's MSDNAA program. Most likley, I will be able to acquire WinXP Pro.
Click to expand...

It is in your profile.
 
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
For music, www.bmgmusic.com and Columbia House can be good ways to build your collection back up -- even after the free CDs BMG has a "3 for 1" sale every month, which after shipping and tax works out to about $9/disc.

Also www.deepdiscountcd.com and www.deepdiscountdvd.com, but always compare price with Buy.com and Amazon.com

One benefit of going legit is you can rip much higher quality MP3 / AAC / FLAC versions of the CDs than 128 kbps garbage from the p2ps.
Click to expand...

I hear ya. I started buying music from www.myplaymusic.com and from www.half.com. From half.com I got 2 like new cds shipped for $6 bucks. Myplaymusic.com (which I think is owned by BMG) I got 3 new cds for $20.
 
For software, if you can't get academic pricing, check the OEM version pricing at newegg.com -- buy a hard drive or ram stick and load up your shopping cart.

If you see ads for non-academic versions much cheaper than newegg's, like windows for $30, it's warez. "European imports" are not real, legit versions and it would be really stupid to pay money for warez.
 
Originally posted by: minendo
Originally posted by: SXMP
Originally posted by: minendo
Originally posted by: notfred
Does you "friend" happen to be a college student?
Click to expand...

UIUC student actually.

Either use campus computers or search for freeware that does want you want. The linux route is a good way to go as well.
Click to expand...

Thats true, how'd you know that. And yes, I'm looking into UIUC's MSDNAA program. Most likley, I will be able to acquire WinXP Pro.
Click to expand...

It is in your profile.
Click to expand...

haha:laugh:
 
Originally posted by: SXMP
Originally posted by: minendo
Originally posted by: notfred
Does you "friend" happen to be a college student?
Click to expand...

UIUC student actually.

Either use campus computers or search for freeware that does want you want. The linux route is a good way to go as well.
Click to expand...

Thats true, how'd you know that. And yes, I'm looking into UIUC's MSDNAA program. Most likley, I will be able to acquire WinXP Pro.
Click to expand...

The MSDNAA program had just started when I was there. It is a great way for CS majors (and others) to get legitimate free software. Keep in mind that if you are really "going legit" you will need to remove all that software when you graduate.
 
Originally posted by: Kyteland
Originally posted by: SXMP
Originally posted by: minendo
Originally posted by: notfred
Does you "friend" happen to be a college student?
Click to expand...

UIUC student actually.

Either use campus computers or search for freeware that does want you want. The linux route is a good way to go as well.
Click to expand...

Thats true, how'd you know that. And yes, I'm looking into UIUC's MSDNAA program. Most likley, I will be able to acquire WinXP Pro.
Click to expand...

The MSDNAA program had just started when I was there. It is a great way for CS majors (and others) to get legitimate free software. Keep in mind that if you are really "going legit" you will need to remove all that software when you graduate.
Click to expand...

http://crl.cs.uiuc.edu/msdnaa/MSDN_AA_student_guidelines.html I'm a CS student at UIUC. Here's a quote from this page under usage guidelines:

"When you are no longer a registered student in a department that is a member of the MSDN Academic Alliance, you may no longer receive updates for your personal use computer. However, you may continue to use previously installed products on your computer, provided you continue to follow program guidelines."

Other places in other EULA make reference to the fact that after graduation you can continue to use the product, just aren't eligible for future product updates.
 
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