[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Software recomendations

[Peter]

On Mon, Dec 29, 2014 at 4:11 PM, Gary Warner <garyw555 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I like Legacy for the following reasons:
>
> 1.  The standard version, which is adequate for most users, is free.

Free in terms of price, but not in terms of format -- Legacy stores
your data in their database in it's own closed, proprietary format. I
take great issue with this.

What would happen in the unlikely event that Legacy were to go under?
Or development of other softwares were such that you wanted to move
your data elsewhere? Your data is locked into Legacy, and you're stuck
exporting it using the lossy Gedcom format. I've worked too hard on my
database to feel comfortable keeping it locked into a closed format in
proprietary software.

Some may be perfectly comfortable doing that, but I prefer Open Source
software which is completely free in terms of price AND in terms of
data formats. Keeping my data in an open format for which the code
will always be open and available, even if those who write it no
longer exist or choose to continue with the software. Anyone can
examine the source code of the database -- your data is truly free!

The poor souls still using The Master Genealogist are suffering the
effects of closed source software right now -- security updates end
for TMG on 31 December 2014, and their data is stuck in a closed
source format. Sure, they can export it using Gedcom, but they'll also
lose tremendous amounts of information in their database at the same
time. What if that happened to Legacy? You could argue that it's
unlikely, but it also seemed very unlikely for The Master Genalogist
to go under when I first started using that software many years ago.

So, using closed source proprietary software for important data is not
a risk that I'm willing to take. I like to truly "own" my genealogical
data. I think it should be "free" in every sense... not just monetary
cost.

Peter