Apple or Ubuntu

[Colin Watson]

On Mon, Sep 17, 2007 at 06:49:08AM +0200, M. Fioretti wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 17, 2007 04:21:25 AM +0100, Liam Proven
> (lproven at gmail.com) wrote:
> > Linux does have advantages.
> >  - Getting the source code is purely theoretical for 99.99% of
> > computer users; very few have the skills and knowledge to read C
> > listings and understand them, let alone tweak them. It's nice but it
> > doesn't matter to the *vast* majority.
> 
> Absolutely right (see #6 of http://digifreedom.net/node/56). A very
> interesting and important corollary of this fact is that it makes no
> sense today to promote Free Software with the "you can study and fix
> the source code yourself!" argument. It's counterproductive, actually:
> you are telling people they can do (or give the feeling they may _need
> to do) something most of them couldn't care less about and would
> probably pay to _not_ do.

The best approach isn't to say "*you* can study and fix the source code
yourself", but "you can get somebody local to study and fix the source
code for you rather than having to wait for a faceless corporation to do
it".

> Going back to the original question:
> 
> > things that Apple OS cannot currently provide whereas Linux has an
> > edge.
> 
> it may be useful for the OP to try answering it from the above point
> of view, that is end-user data ownership: in other words, after you
> have heavily used and customized Apple OS for one year, doing
> everything it lets you do... are you Free to move all the files you
> produced with that Mac (text, video, anything) and all your
> *configuration* data (email provider, bookmarks...) to another
> computer and OS without lots of reverse-engineering?
> 
> This would be an area where Linux has an edge which is really relevant
> to end users.

Psychological OS lock-in is certainly a major factor; changing operating
systems can be hard work. (This is exactly why we're putting effort into
things like migration-assistant.)

However, I'm not sure this is an area where Linux has an edge as such. I
don't have much chance of using any non-Unix operating system in a
manner I feel comfortable with - heck, non-Debian-derived would be hard
work - just because I've been using it so long and have built up so many
of my habits around it.[1] This isn't because Linux is doing evil
proprietary lock-in, but because habits are hard to break. I think that
aspect of it is at least as strong for Apple users as any application
lock-in effect.

[1] Of course this effect is more pronounced for operating system
    developers, because we tend to try to make some of our
    customisations ship as standard with the operating system, and once
    you've started down that road it's *really* hard to switch away ...

-- 
Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson at ubuntu.com]