[mythtv-users] OT: Google - big brother? or I going mad?

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Tue Sep 14 23:50:36 UTC 2010


On Tuesday 14 September 2010 16:11:59 Marco Nelissen wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 1:50 PM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> > On Tuesday, September 14, 2010 01:53:56 pm Marco Nelissen wrote:
> > > On Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 6:17 AM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> > > (...)
> > >
> > > > But it makes me very uneasy to take advantage of all these "free"
> > > > services, anything "free" usually turns out to be worth
> > > > the cost, or to actually cost   much more in the end.
> > >
> > > Kinda funny reading that on a mailinglist meant for discussing a free
> > > software product :)
> >
> > That thought occurred to me as well.
> >
> > But we are talking about two different kinds of freedom. Myth would
> > remain "free" even if it cost money to buy it (as long
> > as it was still GPL).
>
> Sure, but the fact of the matter is that in addition to being free in the
> GPL sense, it is also "free as in beer"/gratis, and therefore, according to
> what you said earlier, either is worthless, or has some hidden cost that we
> should all be wary of.

It does.

The hidden cost is time. Even at minimum wage rates, the time I have spent on 
Myth makes it the most expensive piece of software I have ever had.

Of course I have enjoyed the time spent with Myth, but when I first started I 
never expected it would consume so much time.

I'm sure I am not alone in having spent much more time (and money) on Myth 
than I evewr expected.

Not that it's a bad thing, it's a nice hobby and much cheaper than many 
alternatives.


-- 
Brian Wood
beww at beww.org


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