I decided to post a little introduction to myself here: Ask me who I was last March, and I would have had WinBloze 7 Beta on my main computer and would have been part of Micro$uck's test project for WinBloze 7 and would have been excited about it. However, that changed as soon as my network adapter changed and the new one worked with Linux. As soon as I tested the new adapter with Mint (I'd say about a year ago, in July 2009) I began to really value Linux for what it is.
However, I knew about Linux long before that. I started with gOS 2, which was my first distro. I had tried it back in about February 2008. I first learned about Linux back in mid-2007, from an article in PCMag that spanned several pages. I had quite a hard time back then, and Ubuntu Hardy was no different than gOS.
So then what took me so long from knowing about Linux to finally becoming an active user? My house was nothing but Wi-Fi. My mother set a secure wireless network up back then, and I couldn't connect to it because my adapter (Linksys WUSB54GSC) wasn't recognized by Linux. I had the patience to continue.
Then, in June 2008, my family got hit by the economic collapse here in the USA: The mortgage on my old house doubled and my family had to leave because of the rate increase. So, we were stuck in a hotel room until my family and I could end up in a new house. That Christmas, I wanted a netbook, and got my wish (the one I'm typing on, an Acer Aspire One AOA110-1545). It came with Linux preinstalled, and I liked it all around.
From then to June 2009, I still had WinBloze on my desktop, as Linux still didn't work with my wireless network adapter. Then, in June 2009 as I said, I got a new wireless network adapter, and in July decided to test it with Linux Mint 7. It worked, even from the Live CD! Now,
However, I knew about Linux long before that. I started with gOS 2, which was my first distro. I had tried it back in about February 2008. I first learned about Linux back in mid-2007, from an article in PCMag that spanned several pages. I had quite a hard time back then, and Ubuntu Hardy was no different than gOS.
So then what took me so long from knowing about Linux to finally becoming an active user? My house was nothing but Wi-Fi. My mother set a secure wireless network up back then, and I couldn't connect to it because my adapter (Linksys WUSB54GSC) wasn't recognized by Linux. I had the patience to continue.
Then, in June 2008, my family got hit by the economic collapse here in the USA: The mortgage on my old house doubled and my family had to leave because of the rate increase. So, we were stuck in a hotel room until my family and I could end up in a new house. That Christmas, I wanted a netbook, and got my wish (the one I'm typing on, an Acer Aspire One AOA110-1545). It came with Linux preinstalled, and I liked it all around.
From then to June 2009, I still had WinBloze on my desktop, as Linux still didn't work with my wireless network adapter. Then, in June 2009 as I said, I got a new wireless network adapter, and in July decided to test it with Linux Mint 7. It worked, even from the Live CD! Now,
Linux Generation = YouTube Generation
So I was in the Shops at Mission Viejo today ready to pick up my mother (she has a job at Macy's there) this evening. Okay. My father and sister were trying to kill time by looking in the mall and I had no choice but to go with them. Fine.
We are strolling around the mall, and my father was looking at the various stuff in the mall <yawn>. I liked most of the places that we stopped at, except for one:
As we came to the escalators to go downstairs and were at a corner of two hallways in the mall, my father said "Look, Look!" So I look up and, lo and behold, only the second MicroSSoft Store to ever open in the entire USA! My father was begging me to go in and so I ***pretended*** to like what was there.
I was looking back to what I had said on the PCWorld Forums to a cr@ppŁe troll: "At least M$ actually releases public betas of every release of their software and listens to what the customers have to say, while cr@ppŁe only releases public betas about once in every 15 years." Just as I was thinking that, the unthinkable happens: We find a cr@ppŁe store in the mall as well! Good thing my sister was on my side, and so we didn't stop there.
After these horrific stops in the mall, I spent my time thinking "How could there be a M$ or cr@ppŁe store but not a Google or Canonical store?"
The answer is this: Pure marketing. You see, the downside to FOSS is that FOSS community maintainers can't afford to put ads on TV for their products.
This is the very reason why M$ and cr@ppŁe always have the upper hand: They can afford to pay for propaganda for their products.
So do you think FOSS is in the dust? Not so fast: Here comes the new kid on the block: YouTube. This exploding sensation of a Web site (basically the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana of ways of delivering entertainment) doesn't charge a penny to upload videos.
As such, this is only the beginning of FOSS, as one example already points out: Expect to see plenty of YouTube videos like this one in the years ahead, and not just from Canonical but from many of the major Linux distro maintainers.
So if there's more Linux in the limelight, there's more Linux propaganda. And if there's more Linux propaganda, more good things will surface. And if more good things surface, Linux will have more fans. And if Linux has more fans, it will attract more developers. And if it attracts more developers, it will support more hardware and software. And if it supports more hardware and software, it will become a ***free*** drop-in replacement for WinBloze or OS X that people will flock to like wildfire. Get the picture?
Please comment here if you disagree with me, but this is the future of FOSS as I ***reasonably*** see it.
We are strolling around the mall, and my father was looking at the various stuff in the mall <yawn>. I liked most of the places that we stopped at, except for one:
As we came to the escalators to go downstairs and were at a corner of two hallways in the mall, my father said "Look, Look!" So I look up and, lo and behold, only the second MicroSSoft Store to ever open in the entire USA! My father was begging me to go in and so I ***pretended*** to like what was there.
I was looking back to what I had said on the PCWorld Forums to a cr@ppŁe troll: "At least M$ actually releases public betas of every release of their software and listens to what the customers have to say, while cr@ppŁe only releases public betas about once in every 15 years." Just as I was thinking that, the unthinkable happens: We find a cr@ppŁe store in the mall as well! Good thing my sister was on my side, and so we didn't stop there.
After these horrific stops in the mall, I spent my time thinking "How could there be a M$ or cr@ppŁe store but not a Google or Canonical store?"
The answer is this: Pure marketing. You see, the downside to FOSS is that FOSS community maintainers can't afford to put ads on TV for their products.
This is the very reason why M$ and cr@ppŁe always have the upper hand: They can afford to pay for propaganda for their products.
So do you think FOSS is in the dust? Not so fast: Here comes the new kid on the block: YouTube. This exploding sensation of a Web site (basically the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana of ways of delivering entertainment) doesn't charge a penny to upload videos.
As such, this is only the beginning of FOSS, as one example already points out: Expect to see plenty of YouTube videos like this one in the years ahead, and not just from Canonical but from many of the major Linux distro maintainers.
So if there's more Linux in the limelight, there's more Linux propaganda. And if there's more Linux propaganda, more good things will surface. And if more good things surface, Linux will have more fans. And if Linux has more fans, it will attract more developers. And if it attracts more developers, it will support more hardware and software. And if it supports more hardware and software, it will become a ***free*** drop-in replacement for WinBloze or OS X that people will flock to like wildfire. Get the picture?
Please comment here if you disagree with me, but this is the future of FOSS as I ***reasonably*** see it.
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