Better email client [LWN.net]

Better email client

Posted Aug 2, 2012 13:35 UTC (Thu) by corbet (editor, #1)
In reply to: Better email client by dmcguicken
Parent article: The Nexus 7: Google ships a tablet

It's reasonable, in that it's allowed by the license on the software they started with. But free software is better than proprietary software; when they turned it into proprietary software its value to many of us dropped accordingly.

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Better email client

Posted Aug 3, 2012 21:00 UTC (Fri) by dmcguicken (guest, #57851) [Link] (1 responses)

Its value dropped? I assume not in terms of its actual utility?

Does the fact that the proprietary version is from the creator of the K9 project play into this value judgement? Would 'slapping on' a price tag to K9 be acceptable if the licence remained the same, assuming that was even possible? How do we unpack liberty and remuneration in a world of app stores?

Better email client

Posted Aug 3, 2012 21:21 UTC (Fri) by corbet (editor, #1) [Link]

The utility of a program you cannot inspect or change is distinctly lower, yes. I've never had time to dig into my phone's email client, but my desktop email client does contain some of my patches; without the ability to do that, I wouldn't be using that client. There is value in software freedom.

I have paid to get free software in the past, admittedly far less often since the net got good enough that we didn't bother with tapes and CDs anymore.