ABBYY now have a version of its proprietary FineReader OCR for the Linux command line to simplify
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Anybody up to writing good directory software?
Tue, 2007-02-20 11:17 — David JonathanSince the very beginning, directories (of any kind) have had a very central role in the internet. (I have recently grown fond of Free Web Directory. Even Slashdot can be considered a directory: a collection of great news and invaluable user-generated comments. As far as software is concerned, doing a quick search on Google about software directories will return the free (as in freedom) software directories like Savannah, SourceForge, Freshmeat and so on, followed by shareware and freeware sites such as FileBuzz, PCWin Download Center and All Freeware (great if you're looking for shareware and freeware, but definitely less comprehensive than their free-as-in-freedom counterparts).
Is better education the key to finding better software?
Sat, 2007-03-03 03:25 — Edward RusselI read David Jonathon's article Anybody Up To Writing Good Directory Software? the other day, which got me thinking about software directories in general. As David mentioned, many of the software directories one finds when doing a quick google search are free as in beer, not as in freedom. But what interests me is the software directories that already exist, providing a combination of both free as in beer software, and open source software. Sites such as Freeware Downloads and Shareware Download don't advertise themselves as providing free as in liberty software, but each of them have a good selection of open source software available... if you know where to look.
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2 years 10 weeks 19 hours 49 min ago
Not Free Software
ABBYY FineReader OCR is non-free software. What this means is that ABBYY FineReader OCR fails to respect the users' essential freedoms. This fsdaily.com website is all about the promotion of free software. I voted this down because I can't find anything either promotes free software nor promotes society to consider and value their freedom.
Freedom respecting alternatives to this would include OCRopus and GORC.
knowing-card
2 years 10 weeks 3 hours 45 min ago
I think it belongs here but I won't vote it up
You are right about the license. This is an example of PoF software (Proprietary software on a Free OS).
FoF (Free on Free) is better than PoF (Proprietary on Free) which is better than FoP (Free on Proprietary) which is better than PoP (Proprietary on Proprietary).
Articles about FoF obviously belong here on FSDaily. But, IMHO, articles about PoF and FoP belong here too as they help users transition from PoP to FoF. My blog about FoF, PoF, FoP and PoP covers this in more detail.
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2 years 9 weeks 4 days 8 hours ago
re: I think
Sorry, I still can't find this acceptable. The fact that this program targets GNU/Linux (which happens to be free) doesn't change the fact that Finereader is non-free. The fact is, any user that accepts this will remain subject to helplessness and division.
While it is true that something like this PoF could be used as a means of promoting freedom and not as a goal in itself, the fact remains that there is nothing here that explicitly teaches the reader to consider and value freedom. The only thing the reader explicitly learns from this is the fact that one can now interact with the Finereader OCR system through a command line interface. In the end, readers are being encouraged to adopt one form of subjugation (in the form of proprietary software) and nothing is being done about encouraging people to value their freedom. I want to contribute by promoting a freedom respecting alternative.