Which do you prefer - free visible-code (crippled) OR free encrypted-code?

[delaen1]

Originally Posted by Psionic Vision

You are a user of Microsoft Windows. What are you going to do if Microsoft goes out of business? Would you develop Windows on your own? This does not make any sense to me...

Windows isn't key to my business. Or at the very least it's not an irreplaceable part. If Microsoft went out of business I'd probably try to hide in the basement of a very large building, avoiding the roving bands of bandits who were trying to rape my wife and steal my children to sell on the new black market. Then I'd install Linux.

I would do these things because if Microsoft goes out of business, it means the Apocolypse has come.

And you missed my point. Windows isn't something that *I'M* attempting to make money off of. My forum is. It's foolish to leave something like that entirely in the hands of someone else.

Let's pretend for a second that Apple bought the GUI application that runs the Ipod from another company. Do you really think they'd put something like a closed-source, proprietary, untweakable system like that on their premier product? Of course not. Apple isn't retarded. They know there's going to be a second generation of Ipods coming out shortly, so they better have access to that code to make the changes they need or someone is going to be thrown through a wall at Apple Headquarters.

You're doing the same thing when you install a closed-source system on something like Vbulletin. Like I said, if this is just a hobby for you, great, who gives a shit (but then why you'd be paying for software like vbulletin in the first place, let alone a hack is beyond me). But if you're attempting to make money, you're just like bizarro Apple up there.

Hell, even the guys at Jelsoft realize this. Why do you think they haven't encoded vBulletin yet? Because it would kill their sales. Sure, it would probably be pirated less often, but that's only because 4 people would have the opportunity to spread it.