I linked to this article yesterday, but it's still bugging me. In it, the writer begins:
Over in the DesktopLinux forums, people have been talking about why -- if Linux is so darned great -- don't people give up Windows and move to it.
And then goes on to debunk the reasons normally given: no apps, no drivers, steep learning curve, etc.
That's all fine and well, and even though the reasons that are given for people not wanting to switch (it doesn't come installed) are a bit sketchy, it seems that the premise of the argument is in itself false, and thus nullifies the whole deal.
This may seem like nit-picking, but nothing bugs me more than logical fallacies, especially coming from a writer that gets things mostly right when talking about Linux/tech issues. I guess it's hard to come up with fresh material every day, so one can be excused for just phoning it in on occasion.
The real reasons that more people don't switch is based on wariness when facing the unknown, and all the facts FUD taking hold to a certain degree. 'The Highly Reliable Times'? Puh-leeze. Surely they can do better than that.
And this brings me to a larger point: open source is here to stay. It's hard-wired into our DNA, from the very earliest days of our existence. Open source is about community, about openness and choice, and especially about sharing.
Just imagine if the **AAs had been around during humanity's initial entrance to the scene; some cavepeople are sitting around a fire, enjoying the fruits of their daily kill, a big enough animal to feed the entire tribe.
Then along happens a representative of the HMPA (Happy Meal Protection Association) and drags away the kill, while shouting at the enraged hunters: 'Everyone has to have their own kill! The HMPA has deemed it so!'.
The cavepeople, under these new rules, soon starve to death, and that is the end of humanity. To rephrase --the **AAs walk with the dinosaurs.
Now no one is going to drag away your Happy Meal, so there's no threat of the above scenario taking place, but humanity does require innovation and creativity to thrive and advance, and all these draconian intellectual property rights crackdown just serve to stifle creativity and halt innovation.
Creators and inventors borrow from those that came before them, and if there are to be further creations and inventions to deal with all the issues facing humanity today, there has to be some leeway in allowing borrowing and imitation; copyrighting works that are taken from folklore for a hundred years (in the case of Disney), and cracking down on file-sharers (now with the threat of prison, even with life imprisonment) goes against our very nature (Note: I do not endorse copyright infringement--Piracy!!!--which I why I suggest you go here for all your music needs).
And file-sharing is just the tip of it; how about all those advanced drugs that can slow the onset of AIDS and other killer diseases? By preventing poor countries the right to offer generic alternatives, the big corporations are effectively sentencing all of them to death. Just so they can recoup their R&D investments.
There are so many ways that open source sharing and innovation can benefit humanity. One Laptop Per Child. Reducing education costs. Helping the poor run computers that are not the fastest, but still usable. Those are just a couple off the top of my head.
It's OK for the big corporations to use Linux to run their servers, but they don't want you to run it on your desktop, because Apple and Microsoft (and the larger bosses on their boards and on Wall Street) have to see that year on year profit margin driven ever higher.
Net-neutrality? The broadcast flag? Trusted Platform Module? DRM? EULAs? The Web 2.0? They're all tied together, and the proprietary barons want you to take what they have handed down, in the form they see fit, with the restrictions they decide upon, to be used in the ways that they allow.
Linux throws a spanner in those works, and it's nice for the little guy to have some say in what the future holds in our digital lives, and in the real world. Free--free to choose, to modify, and to share. Open --for inspection, for yourself and the community. Dance with Wall Street wolves, and guess who's for dinner? Enough cannibalization. Time to share.
Gentoo, in K-12 (for the kids!):