Verily I say unto thee, that Goblin spake thusly:
> Do we really want to see Linux with the market share?
No, market share is irrelevant to Free Software. It's Free - mission
accomplished. "Market Share" is just an obsession for those who care
more about greed than creativity, progress and Freedom.
> How would Canonical react to a user base of billions?
They'd further compromise what little principles they have left, and
become just another mini-version of Microsoft, i.e. Apple. Heck they
do that now, with proprietary codecs, and other compromises to their
Windows-mentality userbase. I once put it bluntly to Shuttleworth in
the Gobuntu mailing list, that Gobuntu was essentially about Freedom
at all costs, whereas Ubuntu was about being easy at all costs. That
didn't go down too well with Shuttleworth, who read my unintentional
subtext as "Ubuntu compromises Freedom". However the glaring reality
of the situation, exposed by this simple truth, must have given Mark
pause for thought, as Gobuntu was abandoned shortly afterwards.
Apparently the price of Freedom was too high for even this self-made
South African Millionaire to bear.
> users that want something done with a single click and are not
> interested in learning anything?
And more importantly, not /contributing/ anything, other than money,
of course, which is about as far as most Windows-mentality users are
willing and able to "contribute". Although Microsoft's /own/ metrics
suggests that many of their users are not willing to contribute even
/that/ much (so-called "piracy").
> Windows has many of these users who are wholly unsuitable for Linux.
Much of the problem is attributable to indoctrination rather than an
innate incapacity or malice. Microsoft's propaganda machine has been
running for decades, and is, if anything, probably more powerful and
far-reaching than any political party. Of course the fact that their
agenda is highly compatible with those kind of far-right ideals held
by much of their target audience (predominantly in America, but also
sweeping like a plague throughout the rest of the world), means that
little indoctrination is actually necessary for certain areas of the
market. IOW politics is as much of an incentive (or disincentive) to
use Free Software, as any technical or psychological habits relating
to software platforms and, consequently, just as much of a potential
danger to Free Software. I submit that it isn't Windows users per se
who are "unsuitable", but just a "certain type of people" - the type
who view Freedom with utter contempt, or hold a perverted definition
of it, at least.
> Is this the type of user we want coming over to the Linux platform?
Not unless it's possible to "deprogram" them from the cult they have
been indoctrinated into. Ironically, Microsoft themselves have given
us much assistance in that respect, with the release of increasingly
unacceptable software (e.g. Vista) that has caused their userbase to
become disillusioned and turn against them.
> Only if we want to see our beloved distros end up like Vista (IMO)
I've been saying this for years. Poisonware like Mono increases that
threat by an order of magnitude, as it not only attacks our Freedom,
but also drags the Windows development paradigm into Free Software -
along with the Windows developers devoted to the One Microsoft Way®.
What better way to destroy Free Software than from within, by making
its very /development/ encumbered, by something that not only steers
developers towards the Microsoft-esque tendencies of insecurity, DRM
and bloat, but is even Microsoft's own Intellectual Monopoly?
Free Software developers who support Mono are metaphorically akin to
/suicide bombers/ working for Microsoft, many of whom probably don't
even realise they're rigged to explode in Free Software's face.
--
K.
http://slated.org
.----
| "The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which
| the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf
| denounces him for the same act, as the destroyer of liberty.
| Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of
| the word liberty; and precisely the same difference prevails today
| among human creatures." ~ Abraham Lincoln
`----
Fedora release 8 (Werewolf) on sky, running kernel 2.6.25.11-60.fc8
06:02:41 up 11 days, 8:23, 3 users, load average: 0.02, 0.06, 0.29
|
|
