XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-10, alt.privacy   
   From: marion@facts.com   
      
   On Mon, 1 Sep 2025 08:28:24 -0700, Mike Easter wrote :   
      
      
   > Marion wrote:   
   >> What examples of freeware do you feel meet or do not meet these aphorisms?   
   >   
   > There is too much free/open ware to do this.   
      
   True. Irfanview is my top-most favorite.   
   What's yours?   
      
   > In my world, virtually all of the ware is open source. While I don't   
   > have the skills to examine ANY of that source, the transparency makes it   
   > available to the masses who do have the skills.   
      
   Yup. I'm an octogenarian who has *never* paid for anything on Windows or   
   Android or iOS other than TurboTax (although my company paid for Acrobat,   
   MS Office, etc., which I still use since the older versions work fine).   
      
   > But much of what you are dealing w/ here is free *services*, which is a   
   > significantly different thing than free software, particularly different   
   > than free software which is also open source.   
      
   True. Vpngate.net is a free service. Good catch. So is Psiphon5.   
   Thanks for pointing that out.   
      
   > Also, the open source world is considerably more complex because of the   
   > licensing structure which applies to it.   
      
   I never really understood the "free as in free beer" aphorism since what   
   matters to me only is that it's legitimately free for me to use it.   
      
   An example is ffmpeg vs lame, which were free for me to use but may be   
   encumbered with licenses that I didn't care to even bother to understand.   
      
   With all that in mind, there is value to the group for us to answer this...   
   What is the one finest piece of Windows-based freeware that you enjoy most?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)