Mildly sullied

Today I feel somehow soiled. I bought Microsoft Office for a client. I received the cellophane wrapped curvy plastic box by special delivery. I signed for it. I entered the product code, I agreed to the licensing terms.

Ten years ago there would have been a thrill. Whoo, legitimate software! In a box!

Now I feel sullied and saddened. It's not the exchange of money; far from it, I've bought GPL plugins for WordPress and Joomla!. I've contributed to the Libre Graphics Meeting, OpenDisc, Wikipedia, the Free Software Foundation etc.

It's the loss of Freedom, even if it is on someone else's behalf. The capitulation to a way of life I'd left behind. To rub salt into the wounds, the monetary price of Office and Windows 7 is nearly half the price of the laptop. And the farewell message as I Shutdown for good? "Please don't power off your machine, updates are being installed"

Ugh. Must try harder.