Sorry to disappoint mrprogguy, I am a proponent of the Free Software movement. The Open Software movement is something entirely different.
Using the words cult and socialism clearly show a lack of understanding on your part and you would do well to do some research into the issues at hand.
Eam, just because the authors have chosen this particular economic model for their business does not mean we should support it. There are many other viable ways to profit from software development. If the author released the algorithm and source code under a free (as in speech) licence that would truly be something to show appreciation for, be it in thanks or money.
Just because something is cheep doesn’t mean we should praise the distributor. Free (as in libre) software is not the issue at hand - if it was, you would chose one of the free (as in libre) alternatives.
Foxyshadis…
Noah, the existence and popularity of Winrar has not hampered the growth of Bzip2 and 7zip, so I’m not sure what your point is.
My point was that it is unwise and unethical to use non-free formats/software such as this.
Whether the license requires external plugins is irrelevant.
Untrue. If I wanted to package a free (as in speech) operating system such as Debian I could not include such tools and hence your RAR files are useless.
… but many people don’t have that luxury…
Sorry, come again? Many people don’t have the luxury of being able to download/get a free (as in speech and beer) GNU/Linux CD and replace Windows? Are you for real?