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Re: [News] [Linux] A Closer Looks at LINA's Impact on Linux, Video Demo

[H]omer <spam@xxxxxxx> espoused:
> Verily I say unto thee, that Roy Schestowitz spake thusly:
> 
>> Run Linux apps on Windows or OS X with Lina
>> 
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | The idea is that developers will be able to create programs for one
>> | platform, and they'll be able to run on three different operating 
>> | systems. This could both expand the market for open source Linux
>> | applications, and cut down work for developers. Lina will be free
>> | for open source developers, while a licensing fee will apply to
>> | commercial developers.
>> `----
>> 
>> http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/05/27/run-linux-apps-on-windows-or-os-x-with-lina/
>> 
>> 
>> http://www.openlina.com/
> 
> Hmm. I'm a bit undecided on this one.
> 
> On the one hand, it will expose Linux apps to a wider audience. People
> don't use computers for the OS, they use them for the apps, and if they
> become accustomed to sufficient FOSS apps on Windows, then eventually
> they'll start asking the question "what's the point in me paying for the
> OS, especially one so buggy and insecure?", and have a greater incentive
> to switch to Linux proper. It'd be a sort of "Linux by stages" effect.

I remain somewhat suspicious of all such things - it will surely be far
more effective than Wine could ever be, but I'll be it will open yet
another set of security problems into the sieve that is Windows, only
this time, one which could be blamed on open-source applications.  

If you want to run Linux apps, why not just run linux - it's free!

> 
> OTOH, this initiative might just as easily encourage apathy, since if
> the user has access to all these apps in any OS he uses, then he'll be
> disinclined to bother switching ... the "inertia effect".

A sort of inverse to the network effect.

> 
> Given the mass migration we've recently witnessed, of Windows users
> sprinting away from Vista like it had a disease, I'm not too concerned
> about inertia - Microsoft have cured that ailment with their ineptitude.
> 

To a degree - don't forget that for everyone who grasps the concepts and
approach to lock-in, there are probably 1,000 admins out there who a)
only know windows, b) are very afraid of change, and c) therefore are
very happy to believe whatever Microsoft tell them.  This is the huge
value in the "certified professional" system - it's a way of getting
advocates into customer organisations, who can be far more effective
salesmen for the supplier than any number of external sales folk.
Combine that with senior people being taken to dinner, grand-prix races,
horse races, football matches and so on, and you have a kind of pincer
movement designed to catch the customer's own technical people between
the anvil of the "certified professionals" and the hammer of the senior,
unknowledgable but very well-fed seniors.

-- 
| Mark Kent   --   mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk          |
| Cola faq:  http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/   |
| Cola trolls:  http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/                        |

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