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List:       kde-promo
Subject:    Re: Licensing (Was: [kde-promo] What's the community up to?)
From:       Alex Nordstrom <alexander.nordstromDONT_CC_ME () tpg ! com ! au>
Date:       2004-12-09 3:21:24
Message-ID: 200412091121.25169.alexander.nordstromDONT_CC_ME () tpg ! com ! au
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On Thu, 9 Dec 2004 09:51, Aaron Seigo wrote:
> On December 8, 2004 16:31, Cornelius Schumacher wrote:
> > 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.

Not true in my experience. While many MS Windows advocates will state 
the application base as a reason for their loyalty, this doesn't make 
it so.

People like convenience and simplicity, not abundance of alternatives. 
Windows users are Windows users because that's what they have been, and 
they don't want to have to unlearn old things and relearn the same old 
things in new ways.

> 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.

The reason more people aren't switching is not because of lack of 
programs, but because of lack of familiar programs. Conversely, as much 
as I like KDE, the absence of KDE programs under Windows will *not* 
persuade users to switch to a different operating system. Trust me.

> 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.

Ordinary users panic when confronted with new programs, but they do get 
used to them. Confront them with a full set of new applications, an 
entire new desktop environment, and a different underlying operating 
system and they *will* hit a wall. Smooth migration is a must for 
mortals. (And I include myself in that. Firefox, Thunderbird, Gimp, and 
Open Office helped me switch to Linux. I now run KMail and a lot of 
other KDE programs, but I'm happy that I could choose not to make that 
adjustment as well at the same time.)

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

Do we *really* want them to? I mean, seriously?

Look, without Free alternatives for Windows, people who use Windows (and 
they will continue to be in a dominant majority for the foreseeable 
future) will use Microsoft products that don't follow open standards. 
Nobody is happy about users staying on the other side of the fence, but 
if they do, I would like to at least be able to communicate with them.

> 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.

Right, isn't that what you're saying they will though, where Web browser 
is one of Web browser, office suite, MUA, text editor, etc? That if the 
program is there, people will use the operating system? That if Firefox 
had not existed for Windows, people would have switched to Linux or 
BSD, just to get that better program?

> 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.

A lot of people hesitate to even make the switch to Firefox. (Not to 
mention Open Office or Gimp.) Do you seriously think they would switch 
operating systems to embrace the programs which they even hesitate to 
use in a familiar environment despite being convinced of their 
advantages? I think not.

> 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.

Then we make those connections for them. They don't need to know a thing 
about the GPL as long as they know that Free software doesn't usually 
cost a thing and has delivered good experiences to them in the past and 
caused less trouble than proprietary software, examples listed.

When people can click on their Open Office, Firebird and Thunderbird 
icons on the desktop and start working just as they were the day before 
after having learned one after the other over the course of the last 
few months, we make it possible for sysadmins to migrate users. When we 
force them to educate the users on two dozen programs all at once 
pending a switch, we make that job impossible.

And when we do, we get patented, DRMed MS Office documents we can't read 
attached to broken, HTML-formatted e-mails that we can't read. We pay 
taxes that fund governmental use of programs that produce garbage, and 
we are forced to pay higher fees to our ISPs to handle viruses and spam 
from Windows computers.

But you disagree; people don't, can't and never will realise the 
benefits of free software. What then, I ask, would ever persuade anyone 
to throw out their operating system in favour of another one, of which 
they don't understand the benefits, to get programs of which they don't 
understand the benefits? The sheer number of application programs won't 
do it, because it's not the raw number of programs that counts (if it 
were, Linux probably has an equal number of programs if you include 
utilities anyway) but rather the number of *familiar* programs.

> 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.

Or, as Microsoft takes away their right to freely use the programs that 
they have learned to love *then* they will deem it worthwhile to switch 
to an environment where "their" programs are not only accepted, but 
supported.

> 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").

Hence the importance of Cygwin, to enable that small minority of users 
with the technical skills and interest to get involved in the first 
place. People with such a skillset and motivation are probably more 
likely to switch operating systems, though, so I don't see that being 
much of an issue. If people have the commitment to contribute to Free 
software in the long run--and that has more to do with personality than 
with instantaneously available tools--they're just not likely to stay 
with a proprietary operating system.

-- 
Alex Nordstrom
http://lx.n3.net/
Please do not CC me in followups; I am subscribed to kde-promo.
 
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