The non-licensed license
When dealing with computers, assume nothing. Let me rephrase that; when dealing with computer users, assume nothing. There. We can go forward.
Last evening, I received a request for a data blob. To some of us, all data is a blob; we learn to deal with it according to need. As in, should I knead, or allow myself to be kneed. In need, indeed. This was a document of size, as in more size than a small magazine but not quite the volume of a book. Not my concern, really. This was a call to proof-read, just before setting the presses in action.
The file (or more properly, the archive containing the set of files) was too large to attach to an ordinary email. In fact, certain of the individual files were oversize. I opted to place it in my “Dropbox” and send a link.
Once I had explained that this wasn’t as mysterious as it appeared, I came up against the next bump. The user didn’t understand “archive files” either. I pointed to a site where the needed software tool (decompression, by any other name) could be acquired. So far, we’re on target.
Until the final question: What should I do, as the software wants me to pay for a user license? And here, we come to a huge leap of faith. Well, even though it says that you will have to pay, you don’t have to. Just keep on using the software. It’s the norm.
I didn’t have a better way to “decrypt” four decades of best practice in the world of the home software user. We don’t “do” licenses for utilities that were constructed on the backs of other, free packages.
