proprietary

adj. 1. In marketroid -speak, superior; implies a product imbued with
exclusive magic by the unmatched brilliance of the company's own hardware or
software designers. 2. In the language of hackers and users, inferior;
implies a product not conforming to open-systems standards, and thus one
that puts the customer at the mercy of a vendor able to gouge freely on
service and upgrade charges after the initial sale has locked the customer
in. Often used in the phrase proprietary crap. 3. Synonym for closed-source
or non-free, e.g. software issued without license rights permitting the
public to independently review, develop and redistribute it. Proprietary
software should be distinguished from commercial software. It is possible
for software to be commercial (that is, intended to make a profit for the
producers) without being proprietary. The  reverse is also possible, for
example in binary-only freeware.

