Disk on Key slowly getting smaller

Derek Broughton news at pointerstop.ca
Sun Mar 9 19:39:23 UTC 2008


Dotan Cohen wrote:

> While I do agree that it seems sensible that many Linux users do not
> pay for software, declaring that _most_ Linux users do not pay for
> software is "slashdot comments" research: an educated guess. It sounds
> good, but have you checked? Companies like Google, NASA and Disney pay
> quite a lot for Linux software.

But, they are not "most users".  It's entirely possible that many users in a
few companies are paying a great deal of money for Linux software, but the
largest _number_ of users are people like us (the subscribers to this
list) - and we don't buy software in significant quantities.

> Is the reason that people use Linux because the software is free, or
> because they like a secure, stable OS that just so happens is easy to

I think very much that the reason most individual users get Linux is because
it's free.  They might stay because it's secure, stable or Free, but they
wouldn't try it in the first place if they hadn't got it for nothing.

I hesitate to suggest that any of us use it because it's stable.  Certainly
not me.  If I can't push my OS to the breaking point, it isn't any fun :-)

> I'm certain that were Ubuntu the same price as Windows, most
> of the people who enjoy it today would happily pay for it. 

Sure, those of us "who enjoy it today" - but we wouldn't have tried it if
we'd had to buy it the first time.  After all, I didn't buy Windows the
first time I tried it either (no, it wasn't _quite_ pirated - I found a
copy in the garbage at work - license and disk intact - too bad I hadn't
left it there!)
-- 
derek





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