From kde-promo Thu Dec 09 10:49:35 2004 From: Tom Chance Date: Thu, 09 Dec 2004 10:49:35 +0000 To: kde-promo Subject: Re: Licensing (Was: [kde-promo] What's the community up to?) Message-Id: <200412091049.36217.lists () tomchance ! org ! uk> X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-promo&m=110258935323691 On Thursday 09 Dec 2004 03:21, Alex Nordstrom wrote: > 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.) But the point is: who will switch to a different OS once they have Firefox, Thunderbird, The GIMP, Open Office, maybe VNC and Zinf? Why will people switch from Windows to a Free operating system? Either because they're technically minded and appreciate all the various benefits (perceived security, price, freedom for techies, etc.), OR because a friend or family member switched them, OR because they bought the computer with that OS on. I don't know very many people who would let me switch their copy of Windows for, say, GNU/Linux once they have Firefox, Thunderbird and VNC installed. What will they gain? They already have enough security in their net apps, and the features they need. Now imagine if you bring the whole application suite over... why would they bother? Bear in mind that I have very few techie friends; the majority of my friends find it amazing that web sites are hosted on real computers somewhere ;-) Conversely the only thing that keeps my parents and brother happy with having made the switch, given that some little semi-replaceable proprietary apps don't work, is that they have Digikam, amarok and (since I switched them before I was around to put it onto Windows) Firefox! They didn't need the convenience of app continuity because they only had to move from IE->Firefox and MS Office->OpenOffice. Maybe a _little_ continuity would help in a big office with lots of apps, but let's not fall under the illusion that it's necessary. Aaron is absolutely right: if you remove the application advantage, you remove all the big reasons to switch, unless you're technically minded. IMO we are better off working on, and promoting, technologies that really will help us migrate people from Windows. I'm talking about things like Exchange connectivity, proprietary format compatability, letting development shops use Qt+MinGW to develop Windows apps under GNU/Linux, and so on. Obviously we shouldn't stop people from developing Windows ports. But I think it would be a massive mistake for resources, especially from kde-promo, to go into a porting effort. It would completely undermine us. Regards, Tom _______________________________________________ This message is from the kde-promo mailing list. Visit https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-promo to unsubscribe, set digest on or temporarily stop your subscription.