[ubuntu-za] Ubuntu and Mozilla, the inevitable alliance

[Helge Reikeras]

On Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:30:25 +0200, Nic Roets <nroets at gmail.com> wrote:

> What is more important than fighting MS or closed source, is fighting  
> closed standards / formats. And if you look at sars efiling or  
> infoslips, we have not succeed

Agree with this one. Ideally, everyone should be free to use the software  
of choice and
still be able to share documents and data with those using other software.

Let me try to explain my position regarding Microsoft though.

A while ago I wanted to buy a Bluetooth dongle. The vendor refused to sell
it to me because I couldn't say if I was using Windows XP or Vista (they
didn't understand the terms Linux or Ubuntu and was afraid I would come
back with a complaint). After much convincing I got it though.

Similarly, if a retailer would ask the average PC buyer if they want
Windows or Linux the buyer would surely look very confused going
"Linu...WHAT?"

My point is that most consumers of software are not even aware there is a
choice. This is very different from what we see in other consumer markets,  
where
we are often very concerned with price and quality of our options when
buying a product.

Today there are lots of tools available for developing
platform-independent applications. However, platform-independence usually
comes at higher development costs for ISVs and potential performance  
penalties. Thus, they tend to stick to the platform where they can make the
most profit with minimum amount of effort.

I believe that a more evenly distributed OS market will force ISVs to open  
their eyes to other
platforms. As a result we will see Photoshop and the latest games  
available even for Linux.

It's not that I believe Microsoft is evil, it's just that I believe their
dominant market position causes us (Ubuntu users) to miss out. And
this I will fight in the my own interest as well as the rest of
the Linux community.

- Helge

-- 
Helge Reikeras
http://www.google.com/profiles/helge.reikeras

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