Why is it that people insist on paying for software when there are commercial quality open source equivalents?

Question

Linux, Openoffice, GIMP, etc. etc.

Answer 1

Two reasons come to mind.
1) The mass majority of people don't know about the products and....
2) Even if they do know about the products there is that little peice in the back of their head which insists on filling them full of the notion that if you don't PAY for it, it can't be good.

Of course that is not true, but seems to be the way the psyche works. --Granted there have been plenty of just plain BAD freeware programs out there in the days.. but yeah, OpenOffice, GIMP, etc -- all great products and do an awesome job but yet that tingle in the back of the brain insists on saying that if you don't spend $300 it just can't work the same...... sad sad sad.

Answer 2

possibly the aftermarket services/support and so on.

(and something quite funny and true - from uncyclopedia: linux is written by college students who arent smart enough to ask for money when compared to vista's price)

i use windows i have photoshop. I dont use linux nor gimp. its just a habit maybe. and plus, Im used to these programmes already and i dont want to waste more time to learn other equivalent programmes.

i know they are pretty expensive to buy and i dont buy them. actually im provided with them so basically sometimes companies will give you ie. photoshop instead of gimp. it "sounds" more professional.

sometimes ppl pirate these programmes as well. like music, the more of it is pirated, the more popular it actually is.

you say that some of these open source programmes are better. well it depends. photoshop is way better than gimp, but for the fact that its free its not bad. but windows even though it crashes its still very popular (easy to use interface) and it comes standard on most machines you purchase. open office is similar to word, but it's more primitive. after using offce 2007 it was totally redesigned and a heck of a lot new features (as compared to xp > vista, hardly any difference besides visual appearance).

also the file system compatibility is also a problem. afaik you can only use office 2007 to read a docx file. linux i would say its more for servers --- but again, the "paid" lini (plural for linux lol) are what REAL companies run their servers with. they wont use a random distro to manage their server... red hat and suse are good examples.

so if ur used to 1 thing, stick to it. it will waste time and money and effort to switch to something basically the same.

Answer 3

The 'support' of the industry, someone to blame for the problems you get. They often don't need to put as much work into getting something they paid for to work, not always though.

Answer 4

because they are unaware and uneducated about how much better the open source programs are to the high priced commercial versions.

Answer 5

The pure comfort of knowing you did NOT get what you paid for.

Answer 6

Support !!!!