Selling Linux to Windows Users

[Dotan Cohen]

2008/12/9 Derek Broughton <news at pointerstop.ca>:
>> I don't care about that, I am an end user. I am not out to save to
>> world. Sorry.
>
> You should be.  We all have an obligation to our fellows...
>

I should spend more time with my family. I should do a lot of things.
I'd never get to them all.

>>> Monopoly, and other low life business acts.
>>
>> Monopoly is not a low-life business act. It is the goal of every
>> business.
>
> I can't let that go.  Monopoly is NOT the goal of every business.  I
> have a business.  My _goal_ is to feed my family.  I would be thrilled
> if I could grow the business and feed a few other families, but it's not
> my primary goal.  Monopoly _is_ a low-life business act, which is why
> even the heartl of capitalism, the USA, has laws against it (toothless,
> true, but laws all the same).

Debatable, but I won't get into that here.

>>> Looking at the best software on the market, copy it,
>>> extend it and drive the first maker out of business (legal
>>> pragarisum).
>
> Plagiarism?
>

Business as usual.

>> Just what FOSS devs would do to MS, no?
>
> No.  There are some people who talk that way, but we all _know_ that
> FOSS is never going to monopolize a market, and when you think about it,
> it isn't even possible, because somebody will _always_ fork the code
> base to go in a different direction, which will be hated by some and
> loved by others.
>

Correct.

>> Or engineering software, or printer support, or those extra mouse
>> buttons, or that webcam, or that IE-only banking website. I could go
>> one (others have).
>
> The first is really irrelevant - users with specialized needs have always
> used specialized equipment.  Engineers buy the infrastructure that
> supports their tools, not vice versa.  Home users, otoh, buy systems and
> then throw software on them.
>

I would like to believe that people buy the software that does what
they need. However, from my experience people do what the software
they have can do.

> Printer support is also largely immaterial - you could never expect to
> trade your PC for an Apple (at least in the old PPC days) and have the
> old printer work on it, and it's no different with Linux.  If the vendors
> sell working PCs with Linux on them, they'll get working printers with
> the package - there _are_ plenty to choose from.
>

There are plenty to choose from- if you are looking for a Linux
printer. But evangelists who recruit new Linux users aren't going to
replace the user's printer for a Linux-compatible model. They will
complain that it is somehow the printer's fault that it doesn't work
with this OS that is so great and can replace everything the evil
Windows does.

> Mouse buttons?  OK, I admit I've just started using a 5-button mouse
> with two dead buttons, but I'll be amazed if I can't actually make them
> do something.
>

You can _make_ them work. Can my 74 year old mother in law?

>>>> And those who need those freedoms can use their FOSS programs on
>>>> Windows. What freedom-giving Linux software does not run on Windows?
>
> KDE?

http://windows.kde.org/

In any case, KDE is a desktop environment, not an application that
_does_ anything. The individual components such as Kate, Kontact, and
Amarok are distinct applications and they can be run on Windows.

-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://what-is-what.com
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