Lindows CEO: Taking a bite from Microsoft (ZDNet)

Posted Aug 6, 2003 2:29 UTC (Wed) by philip (guest, #13710) [Link]

I think you did when you wrote:

"FreeSoftware-only OSs"

Posted Aug 6, 2003 2:51 UTC (Wed) by rjamestaylor (guest, #339) [Link]

> Who mentioned choice?

Freedom is about choice, right? I can choose to run fetchmail as it is, or I can choose to modify it. I'm free to choose.

You complained about Lindows.com saying, "but they also encourage their users to install proprietary software." You didn't say "force them" so I inferred that the user had a choice whether or not to install proprietary software or not.

Users are Free to use Free software on non-free platforms, non-free software on Free platforms...

While I respect the FSF I do not care for criticism based on a political (by which I do not mean governmental politics, but philosophical) agenda.

A big barrier to GNU/Linux adoption by users is the unavailability of their preferred proprietary software. Sure, they're politically incorrect for not making do with a Free alternative, but it's their choice. Someone comes along and offers a Free platform to the user AND the way for the user to run the proprietary software they prefer. I'd say this "someone" is helping the user excercise their rights to choose. Eventually, the user may discover a Free alternative that they prefer over the proprietary one. Or maybe they won't and they'll always want the non-free package. But this user is participating in the Free realm more so than if the door was shut in their face for purely political reasons.

> This strengthens the position of proprietary software houses

This is frankly backwards thinking. The unavailability of common packages (proprietary or not) hinders any use of Free platforms and THAT buttresses the position of proprietary software companies more than anything else. When people think that they can't view the media on their favorite websites or that their browser won't let them into a favorite site, or they can't read corporate documents correctly because they can't run the defacto standard business application for such documents they aren't enlightened to join the Free Software revolution, they just pony a few bucks to buy what they need and want and use their computer the way they choose.

If you have a beef with content providers not supporting Free and Open formats, that's a different issue. But to discourage hybrid solutions that introduce people to the Free software realm due to a politically pure agenda is counter-productive.

> If all GNU/Linux users rejected proprietary software such as realplayer

"All GNU/Linux users" currently make up such a tiny number of computer users that they're not statistically significant to mainstream content providers. Google, the search engine choice of the technically savvy, indicates that only 1% of visitors to its site use Linux (Source: http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html). One percent. Moreover those having access to Linux most likely have access to Windows or MacOS as well, so mainstream content providers are under no obligation to support Linux users.

But, if someone bridges the gap and provides what users want, which right now includes a lot of proprietary applications, the base platform number will dramatically increase. As that increase in the "installed base" occurs there will be an opportunity to transition these "bridged" users into totally Free software use -- if they choose. The need, then, is to perfect the alternatives to the proprietary systems to draw them away from proprietary solutions.

Posted Aug 6, 2003 11:39 UTC (Wed) by Wol (guest, #4433) [Link]

Well, the way things are going, I am (sadly) unlikely to get "free on free" for what I want. And that's a DECENT word-processor. Forget about Word (spit) and the clones (OOo etc). They're just glorified letter writers.

I'm a WordPerfect power user. And I think my only hope of getting a decent word processor on linux is when Corel smell the coffee and port it again. That said, if I can get WP8 working again, that's probably better than the current "rewritten and improved for Windows" crap ...

Cheers,
Wol