Cliche, but vote with your wallet and look for open source alternatives. Beside chatgpt I think there is a free and open source, viable alternative for your list.
I used to sail the high seas also, back when I was still a Windows user. I switched to Linux completely, and I don't feel the need to pirate anything. I don't even remember when was the last time I pirated any software. Anything I needed ever since I could either install from my package manager, or compile it myself from source.
Totally agree with you — “vote with your wallet” is the ideal world.
But in India, many of us don’t even have a wallet to vote with.
I love open-source and recommend it to my students. But here's the ground reality:
Most Indian educators, especially older ones, are still on Windows
Switching to Linux isn’t just a tech decision — it’s a mental and cultural migration
And when you’re balancing 4 tuition sessions a day just to earn ₹1,000, you don’t have the bandwidth to learn GIMP when Canva just works
That said, I’m starting to move toward open source slowly (LibreOffice, Notion alternatives, Obsidian). If there’s a solid open-source PDF editor you recommend that works well in low-end systems, I’d love to try and promote it.
Appreciate your reply — this is exactly the kind of discussion I hoped to spark
Cliche, but vote with your wallet and look for open source alternatives. Beside chatgpt I think there is a free and open source, viable alternative for your list.
I used to sail the high seas also, back when I was still a Windows user. I switched to Linux completely, and I don't feel the need to pirate anything. I don't even remember when was the last time I pirated any software. Anything I needed ever since I could either install from my package manager, or compile it myself from source.
Totally agree with you — “vote with your wallet” is the ideal world. But in India, many of us don’t even have a wallet to vote with.
I love open-source and recommend it to my students. But here's the ground reality:
Most Indian educators, especially older ones, are still on Windows
Switching to Linux isn’t just a tech decision — it’s a mental and cultural migration
And when you’re balancing 4 tuition sessions a day just to earn ₹1,000, you don’t have the bandwidth to learn GIMP when Canva just works
That said, I’m starting to move toward open source slowly (LibreOffice, Notion alternatives, Obsidian). If there’s a solid open-source PDF editor you recommend that works well in low-end systems, I’d love to try and promote it.
Appreciate your reply — this is exactly the kind of discussion I hoped to spark