Free != Good

Or rather, Free Software is not necessarily the same as Good Software.

One of the key requirements of software of any ilk is that it just works. It doesn’t have to work particularly well (though it’s nice if it does), it just has to work.

Hence the blue screen of death is a Big No No. Your whole operating system crashing really isn’t on.

Now I have issues with the Evolution email/calendar suite. I actually really like the software on many levels (although I have plumped for the Remember The Milk web app for Getting Things Done).

But the biggest issue is that it keeps crashing, total wipe-outs and freezes. I have been trying to synch with Google Contacts of late, so this may be the problem. But it still crashes, and it’s annoying.

The silver lining of my particular cloud is that I can do something about it. With proprietary software, many think they have an absolute right to total software stability and 24/7 customer support. With Free Softare, you can often buy this, though more importantly it is a shift in the attitude whereby the user starts to think “What can I do to help resolve this issue?”.

To paraphrase JFK: “Ask not what your software can do for you - ask what you can do for your software.”