Re: Is it okay for a student with limited financial resources to pirate software?
 

Yea, that's very true. You make a highly defined, proprietary .doc file, probably with one of the later versions (and -not- saving it in compatibility mode), then assume that a free program will read it perfectly? Yea... I said it was "good enough", not great.
For what my teachers gave out, it did the job. And I had no trouble converting my OO-designed stuff to .doc as a backup.

If you want -perfection-, or proper printing, you should be saving to a format that's designed for such. Like Wikiwide said, PDF's designed for that, and you can almost always "print to PDF" from your chosen program, then print that when you want it.
You could also try using a PostScript file, but whether that works or not depends on the printer and software installed.

That being said, I would argue that HTML -- while excellent for making a readable, formatted page viewable on different sized screens/paper -- is not going to be good at making a "perfect" printed document.


Also, NDI, the point I made earlier was that there are alternatives that -most- can use. Sure, if you are in a "professional presentation" design class, things won't "just work".
You will either need to A, purchase proper software, or B, learn to use a free alternative. And if you are doing the former, you -still- shouldn't pirate it!

Re: Is it okay for a student with limited financial resources to pirate software?
 

PDFs are not meant to be edited -- if you're editing a pdf, you're doing it wrong. They can be annotated, embedded in other pdfs, or turned into forms though. The best tool for that is pdfTeX, and it is free.

Lol.

This disclaimer is unnecessary. :D

PS. It is a pity that this thread is still alive, yet new participants don't seem to have read the beginning...

Re: Is it okay for a student with limited financial resources to pirate software?
 

I never said one should pirate it (I did at the time, but those were different times, it as legal then), I simply have a problem with a blanket "OOo is good enough for a student". It's not.

Now, the implications of not being to excel (get it?) for free is debateable, but not on this thread.

Re: Is it okay for a student with limited financial resources to pirate software?
 

Theft is theft, but survival is survival. You do what you have to do, just don't get caught. :D Seriously, when a society is so skewed that people have to steal to survive, that society only deserves thieves, and ultimately a revolution.

The same goes for software piracy. The publisher wont loose any money over something that would never be sold (to a student) in the first place. There is only one word for this; greed. The whole problem, however, is easily solved with open source.

Re: Is it okay for a student with limited financial resources to pirate software?
 

Perhaps many students don't realise that there are some student pricing programs for oft-used software that makes me green with envy. And IMO if you're too poor for even those, drink less beer.

Re: Is it okay for a student with limited financial resources to pirate software?
 

Some students neither drink beer nor pay for software.
Proprietary programs always get something wrong, with no way to correct it.
When there are some bugs in the program, the manufacturer still asks for more money to update to the next version.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Subjective.

Re: Is it okay for a student with limited financial resources to pirate software?
 

It's easy to blame society for its lowest forms. Nobody blames the lowest forms themselves, because it's mean. Do you suggest that if a person is unwilling to work, or unqualified to do anything meaningful, they should be forcefully fed? And clothed? And given software?

Any set of any data has half of its data below average. And unless it is skewed in some way, it will follow a Gauss distribution. The end of that bell is going to have some nasty things.

Unfortunately, sometimes this is nobody's fault. And ultimately, there's only one way to deal with problems, that that is uniformly, otherwise things explode in whoever's face it is that made the decision. And with the discussion at hand, it's about being on the side of justice (theft) or the side of the majority (fair use). And if that seems easy, remember, if you do the right thing and that thing collapses an industry and throws hundreds of thousands of people in the street, then it's not the right thing any more.

Welcome to Catch 22.

Re: Is it okay for a student with limited financial resources to pirate software?
 

Well hell, apparently they should get free health care... so why not? :rolleyes:

However, there's a difference in "forcefully" fed and getting food for free. I don't think anybody mentioned forcing someone else to do something.

Re: Is it okay for a student with limited financial resources to pirate software?
 

If you are starving and only have a dollar or a pound in your pocket. is it ok to steal your lunch?

Ofcourse it is. I for one would rather see people steal than die. What i mean by this, is it just depends on situation.

When it comes to software I'd rather see people develop and use free alternatives than leech commercial ones. Leeching stuff like indie games I don't approve at all.

When it comes to record industry I don't care. Their interest organizations have acted like mafia, bullied people (threating with legal action and asking compensation money), done DoS attacks on file sharing sites and lobbied thru laws in several countries that limit freedoms of people. Artists can get their money elsewhere, music will never die even if there isn't shitload of money in that business. Actually when there was less money involved I would argue that music was better than what it is today.

So it's situation and personal morals that decide the choice.

Re: Is it okay for a student with limited financial resources to pirate software?
 

LOL. Actually people who do refuse to eat are forcefully fed - eventually.

On campus every student can use most software for free. Universities have special site licenses that cost a fraction of the commercial price. This sounds good, but its evil, pure evil. Universities should be only allowed to use open source. There is no real need for them to use MS Office for instance, instead of Open Office or LateX. There is no need to use Matlab instead of C/C++/Scilab, MS Windows instead of Linux and so on. The only reason this evil persist is because of all the lazy Nazi system administrators getting free courses at nice hotels by the evil-doers.