YAWLINRFTWA

Posted 11-05-2006 at 09:26 AM by unSpawn

"yet another why Linux is not ready for the world article"

Ask not what GNU/Linux can do for you, but what you can do for GNU/Linux.
GNU/Linux users have an obligation because of using FOSS: active and constructive participation in the FOSS ecology. Not doing so means consumerism, which in essence is egotistical and a shallow and destructive movement. Anyone who says GNU/Linux should do "better" and does not put in any substantial and constructive effort to make it "better" does not understand FOSS.

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The article is not accessible from the link. Therefore I am not able to put your comments into context, completely.
Reading between the lines, the individual who posted the "yet another"... is a Linux user?!

In the shadow of Microsoft and consumer response, that is the billions spent, is it surprising that these articles exist. The "expectation" has been established - yes, very consumerist.
When can the user, who has this "expectation", expect to use Linux in the same way?

Linux is the result of contribution, wonderfully so, but does it and will it meet the needs of all those hungry consumerists, (potential Linux users) who have no intention of contributing whatsoever, except the purchase price.
Is "better" a synonym for "expectation". From a casual observance, does anyone really understand the "expectation" that you have expressed.

Realistically, Linux is used, without contribution, understanding (FOSS) or gratefulness for the work of the brilliant people who have dedicated themselves to it's inception and development. The contribution of which is outstanding and selfless in many cases. Unless you are on the "inside" how would you know? Linux needs to be on the "outside", surely, where inevitably, few appreciate just what it is, but benefit immensely from what it has become. Is that the goal?

Posted 12-31-1969 at 07:00 PM by unSpawn unSpawn is offline

If I break up the link maybe it'll work: www.linuxquestions.org /questions /showthread.php?t=498352 .

I like realism. Here's another piece of reality. Not so long ago another CD-based distro went belly up. Not because it wasn't used (aprox 50K downloads) but because the maintainer received no contributions at all in the past years. So here we have a "niche product" which 50,000 (OK: potential) users think is valuable enough to try and use. From those 50K at least ten percent *must* have encountered at least one bug during those years. So while a developer / maintainer will enhance the product, community participation appears vital.

Getting people to move from passive consumerism towards contributing, "the inside" as you put it, is not a goal, but a means for sustaining and enhancing FOSS.

Posted 12-31-1969 at 07:00 PM by unSpawn unSpawn is offline

In essence I agree with your views, but this may lean slightly off topic.
50,000 people is a small to medium sized town, at least where I come from. If your not paying the store keeper, soon there is no store and people go elsewhere.

As a friend once said to me - "I want the technology to work for me, I do not want to work at the technology", referring to my struggles with Linux at that time. He went out and bought an AppleMac.

How does one marry the concept of FOSS and the release of a contender into the OS market, whilst convincing users that they have a responsibility to contribute.
And how are those who dedicate so much of their time rewarded in the process, if they feel that that is necessary or forthcoming.

Free software is wonderfully generous and vitally essential, but one should pay for the "service" provided, if not the software. We live in a world that says "time is money", is that any different for those providing the "service of distributing free software".

I changed my username for privacy reasons.
Cheers

Posted 12-31-1969 at 07:00 PM by unSpawn unSpawn is offline