reasonably major errors

[antonovich]

Hi Simon,
I just listened to your open source article. While it was generally good 
(and positive, hurrah!), there were a few errors and omissions. Some of 
them are understandable, like the IBM woman's assertion that "Linux is 
an operating system, written by Linus and friends" (or similar), whereas 
in fact Linux is an operating system kernel, and the rest of the 
operating system came/comes from the GNU project. This sort of 
simplification is quite acceptable to most open source enthusiasts, 
though not (of course) to the founder of GNU, Richard Stallman! However, 
the piece by "Paul" (I missed his full name, and the online version 
isn't available until Wednesday...), was verging on deliberate 
misinformation, as is commonly the case in open source. There are two 
key points. One, some retailers supply machines with Linux preloaded 
(DSE is probably the biggest), and the distributions that they use 
require extremely little "tinkering under the hood" (e.g., Mandrake). In 
fact, if the systems are set up correctly then the acquisition of 
programmes is made CONSIDERABLY EASIER THAN IN WINDOWS. All that is 
needed is a connection to the internet and thousands of programmes can 
be downloaded and installed WITH A SINGLE CLICK. Not only that, however, 
but it is free. When I say free, I mean that one assigns ftp sites as 
download sites and everything can be downloaded from then on free, 
though you have to pay for your internet connection to paradise or ihug 
or whatever. Some companies charge for this service for their 
distribution (e.g., RedHat) but others do not (e.g., Mandrake). The 
second, and far more important misconception is that "distributions like 
RedHat" need to be purchased, and should be purchased for $100, $200 or 
whatever. In fact, you need never pay anything for it, and legally. In 
fact, even RedHat can be freely downloaded from their website! No, $200, 
not even $1 - free. They (particularly RedHat), offer superduper 
distributions with commercial software on them, which of course cannot 
be copied or downloaded, but every well-known distribution has a 
downloadable version, usually with thousands of applications. He also 
very stupidly said that if you want to be able to reinstall and have a 
play then you need to buy CDs. This is plain wrong. What you can 
download from the distributors (in addition to individual programmes) 
are iso images of the CDs that you can also purchase. Thus if you have a 
CD writer, which many people do, you can simply burn off the images onto 
disk. They are then functionally EXACTLY the same as what you would buy. 
This is completely legal. It is also completely legal to make copies of 
these disks. Not only that, but it is also completely legal to make 
copies and sell them. You can make a copy of your Redhat CDs and sell it 
to your neighbour for $10. This is COMPLETELY legal. The ONLY reasons 
you would buy a disk is if you wanted the manuals that come with it, you 
don't have anywhere with a CD writer that has fast enough internet (3x 1 
CD = days of dialup download), or you want support from the company. You 
also did not mention (I missed the first 3 minutes, so maybe you did) 
the Linux Users Groups, of which there are many around the country. At 
least one in each centre. Here you can get copies of disks, and FREE 
advice on Linux/Open Source (in Chch there is a gold coin koha for tea 
and biscuits and the hall hireage). They have regular "installfests", 
nights where you bring along your computer and get a linux distribution 
installed, or just get advice and help on anything regarding linux/Open 
Source. You can also subscribe to the mailing lists and post questions 
to which you will get an answer if you are persistent (meaning you may 
have to post on a few lists). None of this is mentioned in the article 
and to me represents the major attraction for the enthusiast.
It was very good to have an article on Open Source, because ignorance is 
the main reason for people not getting more interested in it. I hope, 
however, that you might be able to do a followup article which this time 
started at one of the Linux Users Groups around the country. You will 
get a far more accurate picture of why it is so attractive if you start 
there.
Thanks
Anton