There is a famous saying about opinions... you know... that everyone has one...

But we aren't talking about opinions, we are talking about your perception that people should work for your benefit at no gain to them. Thats not an opinion, that is a screwed up sense of reality.


I'm not stupid enough to lay the claim without first looking at your plethora of modifications and their subsequent install counts. My point is, if you know how to make a mod, get off your ass and make the ones you are complaining aren't available for free here. Then support it and thus you would be justified in complaining that others aren't doing it.

The problem is that you are complaining about people not doing something you yourself do not do.

I wanted to add one thing;

Have you used linux on the desktop? Have you used linux in environments where support of the Win32 API and .NET APIs are requirements? For many of us it's not possible to "switch to linux" or "switch to MAC" or use anything else but Windows. I can name a few programs off the top of my head that I use everyday that will not run in linux; Visual Studio, DGindex, AvsP, AviSynth, Aegisub, Cinema Craft Encoder, and many other applications. Sure I know there is WINE and native linux alternatives and that will cover some of my needs but not all of them. At the end of the day if I don't have Windows XP on my desktop I'm not getting any work done.

What I'm getting at is it's easy to point at linux and claim it's a good alternative to Windows but like everything else in the world it's going to depend on the end user's needs. Let me ask you this; Would you install Linux on your mothers computer? Now before you say "Yes!" think about this. Is she going to be able to run a game, or piece of software that her friend brings over? How many times are you going to have to visit to install dependencies and emulators? Do you think it's going to support an ancient game made back in the Win95 days? ;)

Lets take your photoshop/GIMP example. Have you used GIMP to do any professional grade work and if so how did it compare to Photoshop? I've used both pieces of software and I know as well as anyone else that The GIMP doesn't measure up to Photoshop in features. The GIMP also has a horrible user interface that no one seems interested in fixing any time soon. The GIMP is also a horrible name and I hate hearing it every time that it comes out of my mouth. I feel like I'm making fun of people that don't walk that well. ;)

Your Open Office example is better but you know as well as I do that it lags behind Microsoft Office in many ways. Although that has a lot to do with Microsoft coming up with a new file format every couple of years.

As for there begin no alternatives to vBulletin or IPB; I must disagree. There are plenty of open source, non-open source but free, and commercial alternatives out there. Heck you could even start your own if you really wanted to. vB and IPB are just the "big boys" these days is all. If you _really_ wanted to get away from them you could. Why you don't is beyond me but I'm betting it has a lot to do with your needs as an end user. ;)

Okay, that was a really badly phrased piece of wording. I did not mean there's no alternative to vBulletin and Invision the forum software, although I guess my wording was way off. I meant for many of the paid mods, there's no free alternative. I know vBulletin and Invision have free alternatives (which could be listed over 16 pages of lists), but things like vB SEO, or paid products like those from vB Advanced, or RPG systems (which indeed don't even have a paid alternative as Inferno Technologies vanished off the face of the planet) and any form of shop type system (vB Commerce is either encrypted or paid, vB Plaza went fully paid and most of the alternatives either died with vBulletin 3 or 3.5).

Then again, why the hell did this get revived?

Do you know how many support members vBSEO have ? Do you have any idea what kind of a support level they offer to their customers. Do you have any idea the quality of vBSEO code ? Do you know how much it will take to cover all the support staff expenses , development expenses etc ? You should be gratefull to vBSEO as they release a very important product for free at vb.org and also support it. It is clear that you dont hve any idea on any of the above questions. Thats why you should stop using vBSEO as an example. If you need it on your board , you can purchase it. If not stop whinning about it.

Everyone has a right to use any kind of encyription on the programs they code. I personally donot release anything that is even a little complex on vb.org anymore because i have no time to support it and i have no intention to help people making money from my work. Also i want to protect my code as releasing it free can help a person to steal my code. Paid addons have the same problem. In order to protect their code and investment they encode their product.

Auality is important on a program you use. And quality products always deserve to get paid.

Plese don't let this thread turn into a love/hate thread for vBSEO, it will be closed quickly if this continues.

May I just add that Lizard King works for vBSEO, so I don't understand why he continues to act as if he is objective whenever the subject matter arises...

That is already obvious by the posts he makes.

How about just using the law, like Jelsoft uses? And there's still no excuse to why sometimes FREE products are encrypted. So you're scared people will add features they personally want with paying $999.99 for the super deluxe premium addition? Scared people will actually modify it and realise that the super deluxe premium addition isn't as brilliant as it's been advertised? Seriously, the sheer amount of people who seem to think the fear of others stealing their work is worth making it harder, if not impossible for technically advanced users to use for their own purposes is ridiculous.

Oh, and I'm not going to use vB SEO as an example any more, it's obvious that every single mention of it causes a flame war or pages long debate to break out between it's supporters and haters.

Can I ask, how old are you cheat-master30?

Not a kid by quite a few years, but I refuse to give any public information about myself for any reason. So in other words, as most people can tell from the refusal to give out my actual name, or any other information, I won't disclose such information.

In other words, I'm an adult, but my age is not going to be disclosed at any future time, because it has no relation to the actual debate in question given in this topic, and basing arguments on the individual rather than the argument is a fallacy.