Open source: Prepare for attack (ZDNet)

Open source: Prepare for attack (ZDNet)

Posted Jun 3, 2004 22:08 UTC (Thu) by mmarq (guest, #2332)
In reply to: Open source: Prepare for attack (ZDNet) by verzonnen
Parent article: Open source: Prepare for attack (ZDNet)

" What chance does any government and/or company think they have with preventing software from being written and/or used is beyond me..."

The politicians in that goverments are in large extend financed in their campaigns by those Big Corporations that are positined to attack everything that threat their income ability... its a well establiched network of interestes and cumplicitys.

Seems to me that your experience is more in touch with the general commom home user than with the closed walls of big corporations data centers. But IMO you are wrong, and right now Linux/FOSS as no chance but to fight this war.

The general population user's computacional needs is completely immersed in a hypocritical logic of software piracy. As you can see mentined here: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2004/tc2004061_4160_PG4_tc_169.htm
Microsoft recently estimates "at best" that only 5% of the Windows copys running in China are licensed. People as stoped long ago to even think about it, or consider that a crime,... only because Microsoft has been so complaisense to its own beneficial, because a pirated copy at zero (0) "retail price" is a terrible leveling force that no commercial competition has been able to fight. So piracy is the base of this huge software monopoly that Microsoft levels to control in large extend a hardware industry that is dependent (addicted) of it, and with that the all IT world.

The large populations of users are not yet aware of Linux/FOSS. They have no reasons to be, because everything they need is taked from that large worldwide pool of... of warez,... and their resistance to change is enourmous because of this very good "Comfort Zone" with windows. I doubt that Microsoft is going to change much of this in their next comming OS Longhorn.

They are in trouble because Linux/FOSS is clearly winning in the Data Center of entreprises, where the real money is. So is a matter of time for when will they legaly assault Linux/FOSS with patents threats, now that their baked SCO assault seems to have failed. If Linux/FOSS is ilegalized now, they will win the data center for good. So the Open Source has to fight now, or descent to the "underground" where it will not be accepted by the entreprises and neither by the general home users population.

The Linux/FOSS community needs time, and needs the power of common solution, now that "we" are going to face the biggest threats.
For the general home user, i belive, a common look and feel based on a common human interface directives is of the utmost importance, of which i can emphasize a commom pool of color management mechnism, Icons, letter fonts, menus, some basic widgets, and some of the most fundamental dialogues,...
For the entreprises data-center, i belive, is very much needed something like a common pool of Open Source licenced patents in the hands of a full empowered Open Body, as much as a crap/prior-art busting organisation (http://www.eff.org/Patent/).
This is most logic a concern to the commercial part of the LiNUX/FOSS community,..., and is up to them to finance it properly.

In small steps all pieces are coming togheter, but it will fail if "we" lay down the arms and quit of fighting.

Marques

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