2010/6/5 Balaji Damodaran <[email protected]>: > well yes. Try convincing a person who tried linux, said it sucks and > went back to windows just because it didn't play his/her pirated mp3 > songs and avi movies off-the-shelf or because he/she couldn't play > their favorite video game, about freedom and RMS and his ideology and > why microsoft is evil.or just google for 'linux disadvantages' to come > to reality.
Many people advocate Free Software and GNU/Linux for its Freedom. Getting maximum number of Linux users may not be the top priority for some, but to teach people to value their Freedom. At the same time, there are people who consider getting more market share for Free Software is their ultimate goal, irrespective of whether the users appreciate the Freedom or not. Depending on which side you are, you can focus your efforts. Some of the disadvantages you highlight are legal, except for the US, at least for now, there is nothing that stops Free Software from being able to play mp3's of off-the-shelf videos. This problem comes because US is a huge market, but there are many distros that supports multimedia out of the box, like linux mint, mandriva. Plus getting that fixed is not a big problem, but obviously not easy for a new user. > I find it very hard to convert a person to use linux as his/her host > OS. Mind you, they are really good developers. The moment you say > that you need to type a command that goes like "sudo apt-get install > foo" - they just frown. They'll eventually get to know the terminal > and some may even end up liking linux, but the point to note is that > some like to change, some don't. And they DO appreciate linux as their > development environment, but it just doesn't fit their choice as a > desktop os. Why don't you tell them to choose add or remove software from the menu? > That will be a whole different thread all together. linux desktop OS > share is a still scanty little 1%. (excluding millions of enterprise > linux servers) > > Shouldn't our focus be on improving the UX of linux and reach out to > the masses? Will forcing people to call the OS as GNU/Linux address > this problem? If all you care is market share, go ahead and call it whatever you like, the point of stressing GNU is to highlight the philosophy. There are people already distributing GNU/Linux, without adding GNU or even Linux to it. So asking to call it GNU/Linux is not to address this problem. If you don't care about the philosophy, call it whatever you want, like many others, problem solved. > I believe we have a bigger problem to solve, Linux is still niche. > Meant for those who know code. RMS is god - emacs, FSF, GNU are his > legacy. Take a bow, but I don't think his childish behavior is helping > at all. That is your belief, there are people who share this and who don't share this. So work with people who share your vision and cooperate with others on matters which are shared - like patents, DRM or whatever. But multiple visions/beliefs will continue their efforts to influence the other. > And why is it important that they *should* know the history of an OS? > Does Microsoft insist that whoever buys windows should know that the > first DOS was written by Bill Gates and his reason behind development > of OS --> A computer in every home. Because unlike any other software GNU project was started for Freedom. It taught the world to fight for it and built up a complete Operating System which gives every user Freedom to use, learn, share, modify and distribute. If you don't think it is not important you are Free to call it Linux or Open Source or whatever you like. Many who already does that. > See, Ubuntu is the most *user friendly* OS, IMO. They don't even > mention that their OS is based on Linux in their homepage. Few > iterations down the line, the won't even claim that they're a linux > distro. It is not an accident that Ubuntu is user friendly. Years of hard work is behind it. If everyone was focusing on just the artwork or marketing, we wouldn't have Ubuntu as we see it. Even now it the result of hard work many distributions and up streams. If you think Ubuntu _alone_ made your printer to work out of the box or have your system detect your hard disk, or let you read and write disks formatted with Windows file systems, or help you seamlessly work with Microsoft Office documents, then you are not seeing the whole picture. It not same a single company created Operating System. You may not care, many who may not care either. Those who care would continue to push the ideas and ideology that made all of this possible. > Android, Chrome OS are based on Linux kernel (I guess google knew > which one is difficult to start from scratch) > Does Linus go around shouting foul about Ubuntu, Android, Chrome OS (yet)? Because Linus does not care. He has a different philosophy from RMS and Free Software movement. Everyone is free to choose from whichever philosophy they like or don't care about any philosophy at all. GNU and Linux represents different philosophies and choosing a name means you pick a side. It is fine that you pick a side which you are comfortable with. GNU philosophy gives most importance to Freedom of computer users, where as Linux philosophy gives importance to best tool for the job. It is only natural that some follow the GNU philosophy and some Linux philosophy (Free Software and Open Source). I feel comfortable with GNU philosophy and I call the system GNU/Linux. If you feel comfortable with Linux philosophy go ahead and call it Linux. Lets promote the operating system for our own reasons. Praveen -- പ്രവീണ് അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില് <GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call! <DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak? (as seen on /.) _______________________________________________ ILUGC Mailing List: http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc
