Linux desktop lacks innovation

[Liam Proven]

On Nov 14, 2007 5:19 AM, Peter Garrett <peter.garrett at optusnet.com.au> wrote:
> On Tue, 13 Nov 2007 21:51:42 -0600
> "Tommy Trussell" <tommy.trussell at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On 11/13/07, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Not sure if folks hereabouts saw this. I had hoped for more
> > > constructive comment and criticism than I got. Even the legal eagles
> > > at Groklaw missed my point and dismissed it as a troll.
> > >
> > > http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/11/02/linux-innovation-missing
> >
> > Thank you for a thought-provoking article. It's too bad people are
> > skimming and dismissing it rather than recognizing it for what it is.
> >
> It's certainly an interesting article.

Thanks! Glad you think so.

> I think there are a few aspects of this that need consideration:
>
> 1) Not all countries subscribe to the ridiculous notion that software is
> patentable, thank goodness. MS might win in the USA, but they are just
> playing whack-a-mole, because you cannot stop everyone, and there are
> multiple ways to do anything, anyway...

That's a good point, but the question I must ask in response is this:
how many places is it necessary for MS to win in court to defeat the
FOSS efforts? E.g. Ubuntu is - let's not beat around the bush here -
*crippled* by the lack of codecs for all the various modern non-Free
formats around, from Flash to Java.

MacOS ships with them. Some Linux distros ship with them. But they're
illegal in some countries, so worldwide, products like Ubuntu and
Fedora go without, massively reducing their usability for millions of
users worldwide.

I'm British. As far as I know, here in the EU, it would be legal for
Canonical - HQed in my old home, the offshore tax haven of the Isle of
Man - to distribute DeCSS and so on with its distro. Mandriva and SuSE
do. But no, it's illegal in the USA, so Ubuntu doesn't, so in the past
I had to frig around with EasyUbuntu and Automatix and now I have to
manually install ubuntu-restricted-extras to get this stuff.

One country's laws, but worldwide effects.

> 2) Free and open software will route around any attempts to kill it.
> People will simply change their software and keep rolling...

Say that when all new PCs ship with TPM chips fitted and enabled so
that they won't boot without signed code.

> 3) When the printing  revolution happened, the rich and powerful wanted to
> control it. It took centuries, but in the end all that has become largely
> meaningless - these days anyone with a computer and an Internet connection
> can be a publisher.
>
> At the time of the "invention" of printing, the powerful did not want
> universal literacy. The rich and powerful technology pushers don't want
> universal computer literacy, either.
>
> Trying to stop this has become more or less futile, despite the legal
> muscle being used to throttle it. We need a new paradigm for practically
> every form of expression, and fundamental changes in the way we view
> copyright, trademarks and patents. They are becoming irrelevant in their
> old forms.
>
> We are living in a second Gutenberg revolution: we are winning, and I
> doubt that the old ways can survive.

I devoutly hope you're right.

However, don't doubt for a minute that the entrenched powers, huge and
rich as they are, will do *anything* and fight very very dirty to do
all they can to stop this happening.

The top half a dozen US software companies put together are worth more
than the bottom few dozens or so countries put together. That's a lot
of financial power. Big business already owns and runs the US
government; read Naomi Klein's /No Logo/ and similar for details.

They are a force to be reckoned with.

But currently, the FOSS community isn't even thinking about how to
deal with this; it's just laughing at the threat.

That's not a sensible plan.

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
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