| reply to FF4m3
Re: Open Source's Secret Ally: Moore's Law You know... Linux keeps hovering around 1.5 to 2 percent and for the most part it's just stagnant. What's the best bargain for shoppers? It's "FREE", right? But even so the OS is still just hovering there, going no where. Now hear me out, even though some of you are annoyed of me... One of the big problems is getting the word out. Getting your average john and Jane to check out Open Source Operating Systems and software. Now where can you find most of your run of the mill Jane and John peeps that only know "Windows" and "Apple", and when I say Apple that means they don't even know what OS-X is" Well one place comes to mind! It's the "Shopping malls". Now this would be a monumental task and it would require lots of funding from the Open Source sponsors and collaboration with the major distros. With millions of average Americans going through shopping malls across the country YOU "the community" would now have the ability to finally expose to them the Open Source booth of freedom "lol".
All it would take is funding and collaboration to get one of those little booths at the malls next to the phone case booths. You could have pamphlets explaining Open Source, it's software and the movement; free installation CD's, kewl desktops setup with the latest distros. All that with a catchy phrase above the booth...
So what do you think? |
|
davePremium,MVM
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio
kudos:8 | What's the point in making Linux "popular"?
It's a serious question. In general, "more people using something" is a means to an end, not an end in itself.
Speaking as a long-time NT user, popularity is good because it gets you better support from hardware vendors, and is a curse because it gets you the Windows 9x crowd demanding stuff. |
|
Reviews:
 ·AT&T Southwest
| reply to DarkSithPro
said by DarkSithPro:You know... Linux keeps hovering around 1.5 to 2 percent and for the most part it's just stagnant.
You mean the desktop market. Outside of that, *nix far outstrips Windows which is virtually non-existent.
And, to be clear, OSX is Unix, not Linux.
quote:
...popularity is good because it gets you better support from hardware vendors, and is a curse because it gets you the Windows 9x crowd demanding stuff.
Man, do I agree with that! |
|
| reply to dave
said by dave: popularity is good because it gets you better support from hardware vendors, and is a curse because it gets you the Windows 9x crowd demanding stuff.
I don't know about you, but I'd rather deal with a massive user base wanting more and being an annoyance. By educating them, rather than being the insignificant 1.5 percent no one cares about. Sometimes you need to make compromises to get your message and software across. In the long term if you're the major player on the block the OEMs are going to bow down to you. Again the Linux community has to look at themselves and their distros and make the decision if their Operating Systems are good enough to compete against Microsoft and Apple for the average Joe. If they're not then they have lost battle of the desktop market. Most people don't want their OS as a hobby, but rather as a simple platform to run their programs. It's pretty sad that free OS offerings are not being chosen over closed source Operating Systems that they pay for, because they have the backing of OEMs. That is the biggest tragedy of all time. |
|
| said by DarkSithPro:Again the Linux community has to look at themselves and their distros and make the decision if their Operating Systems are good enough to compete against Microsoft and Apple for the average Joe. They are.
said by DarkSithPro:...they have lost battle of the desktop market. They have, due to MS' licensing with PC OEMs. So who cares at this point? Times are rapidly changing. MS has no such fixed agreements with OEMs for mobile, portable, and imbedded devices.
said by DarkSithPro:It's pretty sad that free OS offerings are not being chosen over closed source Operating Systems that they pay for, because they have the backing of OEMs. The marketplace and consumer demand is rapidly changing.
said by The Seattle Times :The whole company [Microsoft] has been driving for years toward this radical overhaul of its flagship operating system.
It's an urgently needed move as computing moves increasingly away from traditional PCs -- on which Microsoft built its dominance -- to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, areas where its competitors dominate.
But the dominance of Apple's iOS and Google's Android platforms in the mobile realm threatens the future of Windows
For Microsoft, "that's a huge headache because the value of the Windows franchise is that it's the dominant personal-computing operating system, and it's not anymore," said Frank Gillett, an analyst with research firm Forrester. |
|
|
|
