[CS-FSLUG] 10 Things for Linux Desktop Evangelists to Ponder

[Josiah Ritchie]

On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 7:29 AM, Ed Hurst <ehurst at soulkiln.org> wrote:

> On Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:09:15 -0500, Jon Glass <jonglass at usa.net> wrote:
>
>  Just some thoughts to ponder and potential converstion starter. What think
>> ye?
>>
>
> Those of us who love and use Linux are not mainstream people. We are the
> folks who rejected the standard offerings because certain things matter to
> us which do not matter to the rest of the world. The article is generally
> correct in pointing out what it takes to reach those masses. Whether
> marketing has made them that way, or marketing simply knows they are that
> way, is immaterial -- the masses are that way now. And Linux is not, nor can
> be.
>
> --
> Ed Hurst
>

I pretty much reflect Ed's comments. I've stopped paying attention to the
"spread linux" thing. I appreciate compatibility, but I really don't care if
my neighbor runs it. If he likes Windows, fine. I can still interact with
him, unlike times past. More and more I find that what I like about Mac OS X
is that it is very much like Linux in so many ways. What I don't like about
Mac is where it is similar to Windows, a lot of which is philosophical, like
Ed alluded to. I support missionaries running Mac and Windows from my Linux
box. We're all happy and everyone thinks I'm running the same operating
system they are.

I'm not concerned about the changes these types of articles talk about. I
don't even read them anymore. One of the pillars of both strength and
weakness in Open Source is that the program becomes what the collective mind
of the programmers want. Inversely, it rarely becomes what the programmers
don't value even if that is what the Windows crowd values. This assures, to
some degree, my continued comfort despite such articles saying we should be
like Windows.

In other words, the open source community is selfish and this assures my
relative comfort. :-)

JSR/

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