I know this thread is supposed to be dead but...
The problem I see with Stallman is that while he wants users to use free
distros he doesn't offers methods for developers of software that primarily
targets desktop users to make money (without relying on donations).
This was the problem with Stallman's response in the interview. The
interviewer asked him how to continue making money from developing a game if
it becomes free software and Stallman simply said "I hope you can find a way
to make money developing custom software for a client" (don't kill me if I
got the quote wrong :) ). Now I understand that you can earn money making
custom software for a client (e.g. a billing system for a client), but this
still doesn't address the desktop problem.
The fact that Mozilla's browser makes most of its money from a partnership
with Google shows that the free software model has a problem with answering
the question how to earn money developing free software designed for desktop
users. Since Mozilla's market share is declining I doubt Google will be as
generous with them in a few years time.
It is impressive that GNU/Linux has a lot of free software, however many
programmes do not have a graphical user interface which a non technical user
will be able to use. For example, there are a few very good command-line
download managers (Axel and Aria2), but they do not have decent graphic user
interfaces. Also, video editing can be done via FFMpeg and Mencoder but they
require learning how to use the software and neither has a decent graphic
user interface. In addition, several basic word and board games are not
available with a graphic user interface to GNU/Linux users under a free
license such as scrabble and (a non-network version of) monopoly.
There is also the problem that many free software developers make desktop
software that is not needed, such as multiple browsers using the same
rendering engine which do not serve a different purpose (e.g. Dooble and
Arora), and multiple competing desktop environments that lack polish (e.g.
Xfce's keyboard switcher doesn't work after restarting the computer, LXDE
doesn't support adding hardware sensors to the panel yet, both Xfce and LXDE
do not support setting universal proxy server via GUI etc). It would be
better if instead of developing redundant competing software the developers
would make existing GNU/Linux software more newbie friendly (e.g. by adding a
graphic user interface to good command line programmes). It should be noted
that this problem isn't unique to free software on the desktop and exists in
other free software projects as well, e.g. the Openmoko Neo Freerunner has
many distros most of which are not fully functional or polished.
