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List:       kde-promo
Subject:    Re: Licensing (Was: [kde-promo] What's the community up to?)
From:       Aaron Seigo <aseigo () kde ! org>
Date:       2004-12-09 1:51:32
Message-ID: 200412081851.36076.aseigo () kde ! org
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On December 8, 2004 16:31, Cornelius Schumacher wrote:
> I think our goal should be to get our great Free Software to as many
> people as possible. As the Free Software aspect is very important,
> Linux as a Free operating system is of course preferable, but having
> our software available on Windows opens us a much larger market and
> provides a great migration path for users who don't want to abandon
> their operating system at once. If we sneak enough applications onto
> their Windows desktop they will realize at some point in time that
> there is no need to run Windows anymore and they can just switch.

this is a completely flawed line of reasoning IMHO. if people wish to port 
Free software to non-Free platforms like Windows, fine. but here's why it'll 
end up hurting us, if not even killing us, in the long run:

the vast majority of users choose which OS to run because of the applications 
that run on it. 

full stop.

this will not change: applications are everything. if the applications are 
there, people will use the OS. if the applications aren't there, they will go 
where they are there. they will choose OSes that provide the greatest number 
of applications, even.

by porting to Windows, in this specific case, we extend the # of applications 
on that platform. FireFox has given Windows users a way out from Internet 
Explorer without the user having to switch OSes. this means that instead of 
investigating and migrating to non-Windows OSes, people are just staying on 
MS Windows and running FireFox.

meanwhile, Microsoft is not going to port any applications to Linux/BSD/etc.

this means that Windows has MS apps + Free Software apps. Linux/BSD/etc has 
Free Software apps. why would ANYone in their right mind who is used to 
Windows switch to Linux or BSD for a web browser? they have no reason to.

and the more software we port to that non-Free platform the worse we make that 
situation. if they actually had to make a choice between a Free OS to get 
those better apps and sticking with Windows, their might be a reason to make 
the switch.

go and survey people using FireFox on Windows... how many of them think, "Wow. 
This was really great! I think I'm going to go use more Free Software, in 
fact I'm going to switch operating systems to use a Free Software OS"? 
practically 0. ditto for open office. we expect people to make connections 
that they, as consumers and not technophiles, are completely and blithely 
unaware of.

some ask: but isn't is enough to give these people Free Software? i mean, 
isn't it cool that they are at least partially away from closed source 
"solutions"?

no, and not because of some puritanical quest for completely Freeness in the 
software stack.

as long as Microsoft can keep users on their OS, they will continue to improve 
their applications. this involves, among other things, changing the base OS, 
libraries and various system components to help their own applications. they 
did this before with competitors like Lotus 1-2-3 and DR-DOS.

as FireFox takes market share from IE, Microsoft will combat this not with IE 
development only but rather they will invest in operating system and "desktop 
environment" development that will give IE unfair advantages over FireFox.
and people will once again switch back to MS software.

as long as Microsoft controls the base of the application stack, and they will 
never give that up, they will have the ultimate ability to outcompete any 3rd 
party software on Windows that they want. while people's pain is eased with 
FireFox, Microsoft has been given the time to better their software without 
worrying too much about people leaving their platform before they can do so.

by porting software to Windows, we decrease or even eliminate the competitive 
advantages of Linux/BSD in the eyes of consumers while giving Microsoft all 
the rope they need to shut the door once again on these pesky 3rd party apps 
(they've done it before, they'll do it again)

to make it even more ludicrous, by keeping people on Windows we vastly 
decrease the odds of their getting involved and contributing back to the 
community due to the lack of tools necessary to do so (e.g. a debugger for 
backtraces, or marketing from the primary vendor of their software to "Get 
Involved").

so if you want a repeat of the 90s continue to support Free Software on 
non-Free platforms. and when Free Software on the desktop becomes a humerous 
footnote in technology history you can feel like you accomplished something.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
Society is Geometric

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