This is a false anecdotal dichotomy: either install latex on your computer at the cost of "clogging up your filesystem" (whatever that means), or give up your freedoms.
textlive-most (which is a meta package which includes almost everything an ordinary user need) uses 1.2GBs on Arch Linux, so for sure it's not "couple of GBs". And even if it takes a couple of GBs: I'm using ~60GBs in my root filesystem, and never experienced any "clogging" (granted, GNU/Linux doesn't use Windows Registry).
If installing programs "clogs up your file system" in Apple's proprietary fork of BSD (don't know/care how they call/stylize it these days), another viable option, before throwing away your freedoms, is to consider switching to a different filesystem or operating system which doesn't "clog up" when you install new programs (and which isn't riddled with backdoors and doesn't spy on you, like Apple products do: https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/malware-apple.en.htmlhttps://www.gnu.org/proprietary/proprietary-surveillance.en.... ). Now I'm not sure whether this is an issue with HFS+ or a more general one within Darwin, but what is the point of having harddisks with large capacities (measured in TB these days) if you can't actually use it?
> ShareLaTeX is that I can use LaTeX from any computer (connected to the Internet) to access any of my automatically synchronized files and have an automatically updated install of LaTeX. I personally found that value proposition worthwhile.
I'm not seeing any convincing arguments or any "worthwhile propositions" here. With GNU/* and *BSD, that burden is on the package maintainers. System updates do include latex updates too (I know that it isn't the case with proprietary system you're using, but that's an argument for switching to a free/libre OS, not throwing away your freedoms). And I am able to synchronize my files (including .tex files) files across devices over the internet using syncthing, while still not yielding my rights and data to others, and there are plenty of FOSS alternatives to syncthing too.
And even if your original dichotomy was a real dichotomy, I would encourage people to protect their freedoms, not to throw it away for convenience.
And before you say anything about conveniences of SaaSS in collaborative work flow: I'm a professor and I've been writing papers, posters, presentations, books, etc using latex for like 2 decades. I'm pretty sure I used LaTeX more than you, and for serious stuff.
This is going to be anecdotal, and I'm not going to get into details but in one instance, parts of our paper has been leaked before publication by an intern at Google (some of us were using gmail). Since then, we all moved to a private mail server and we're encrypting our correspondences with our collaborators. I know that stuff like this happens rarely, but when it happens, it hurts you.
Aside from principles regarding freedoms, or the creepiness of mass-surveillance, I've already been bit by "cloud" once, so I'm more careful about this than average person.
So don't ask me to trust some random dude with a cool startup, or a well-known company with my important data.
In this context, I mean that in two ways (but mainly #2):
1) macOS has a feature (Spotlight) where I can search all of the files on my entire computer with a simple keyboard shortcut. >99% of the time, the result pops up within a second. I use that feature literally dozens of times each day. With LaTeX installed, I got a lot of results that are not relevant to what I want. In hindsight, I should've just disabled the indexing of the files in my install directory.
2) My computer (at the time) had a 64 GB hard drive. As a result, I was straining against the limits of that pretty hard. Uninstalling MacTeX (I believe that was the distribution I used) freed up at least 2 GB. I'm not sure why there's a discrepancy between your quoted figure of 1.2 GB and my experience.
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In addition, ShareLatex's UI was far superior to anything available for OS X (at least, at the time).
My primary interest is in making myself as productive as possible. If using non-libre software gives me significant gains in productivity while not being unreasonable with their licensing terms/costs, then I will use it. That's the same reason I am using macOS. By using this proprietary piece of software, I do not have to tinkle with the inevitable strange bugs that pop up with the various libre options and therefore I am allowing myself to be the most productive I can possibly be. Every time I have tried using a libre OS, I have experienced some kind of bug that's simply impossible to diagnose and solve.
In sum: the value proposition of non-libre software is increased productivity. I highly value productivity. So, I am willing to make the tradeoff. I recognize and accept that if everyone does this, the world is worse off. But, I am selfish and therefore am willing to make the tradeoff (to some extent; my willingness to tradeoff is not infinite).
Sidenote: I could (technically) not throw away my freedoms by hosting my own instance of ShareLatex (as it is, now, licensed under the AGPL), but that's highly inconvenient and I have no interest in being a system admin. Again, this goes back to the idea of increased productivity by using "proprietary" services.
So, behind all your marketing buzzwords, you're trying to portray GNU/Linux software as buggy in contrast to superior Mac/Windows, which has, interestingly, long been a FUD and a lie propagated by Microsoft. This suddenly takes me back to halloween documents and "real cost of 'free'" because you're saying exactly the same thing, only in 2016 (on halloween eve!).
Like many others, I've been using GNU/Linux since ~1997, and been totally happy overall, and I can vouch it's nothing like you're trying to portray.
You may, of course, value your freedoms less than the conveniences you find in Apple or SaaSS programs. You prefer trading your privacy and freedoms for bits of conveniences, and that's the way you chose to live. I did hear you the first time. No need to reiterate, as this is not about your personal feelings or the "values" you found here and there (and no offense, but frankly I don't care about your personal feelings or anecdotes).
I'm trying to make a point that goes beyond your "productivity": this line of though shouldn't be advertised as a good thing due to the fact that it eventually hurts us as a society at large (see the references in my previous posts).
textlive-most (which is a meta package which includes almost everything an ordinary user need) uses 1.2GBs on Arch Linux, so for sure it's not "couple of GBs". And even if it takes a couple of GBs: I'm using ~60GBs in my root filesystem, and never experienced any "clogging" (granted, GNU/Linux doesn't use Windows Registry).
If installing programs "clogs up your file system" in Apple's proprietary fork of BSD (don't know/care how they call/stylize it these days), another viable option, before throwing away your freedoms, is to consider switching to a different filesystem or operating system which doesn't "clog up" when you install new programs (and which isn't riddled with backdoors and doesn't spy on you, like Apple products do: https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/malware-apple.en.html https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/proprietary-surveillance.en.... ). Now I'm not sure whether this is an issue with HFS+ or a more general one within Darwin, but what is the point of having harddisks with large capacities (measured in TB these days) if you can't actually use it?
> ShareLaTeX is that I can use LaTeX from any computer (connected to the Internet) to access any of my automatically synchronized files and have an automatically updated install of LaTeX. I personally found that value proposition worthwhile.
I'm not seeing any convincing arguments or any "worthwhile propositions" here. With GNU/* and *BSD, that burden is on the package maintainers. System updates do include latex updates too (I know that it isn't the case with proprietary system you're using, but that's an argument for switching to a free/libre OS, not throwing away your freedoms). And I am able to synchronize my files (including .tex files) files across devices over the internet using syncthing, while still not yielding my rights and data to others, and there are plenty of FOSS alternatives to syncthing too.
And even if your original dichotomy was a real dichotomy, I would encourage people to protect their freedoms, not to throw it away for convenience.