Re: Linux users who like Windows

Subject: Re: Linux users who like Windows
From: Steven Oppenheimer <writer -at- writemaster -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 12:15:59 -0700


I haven't used Linux yet, but there is a fourth reason why Linux is of interest to me, in addition to the three given by Bruce below. And I think this same reason will apply to other users as well, and hopefully to major corporations in the near future.

Say someone owns three computers (home office, laptop, and a computer at a family home out of state). Up until Windows 98, a user might have no compunction about installing one copy of Windows on all three computers, licensing agreements be damned. The computers are used by one owner, and only that owner, and it is ridiculous that he or she should pay for three copies of the operating system for one user. Same for MS Office, and MS Developer Studio that is used for programming. Now, with the registration feature, Bill Gates virtually locks us into paying for three copies of his software, one for each computer. That's a huge outlay of money for an individual, and it is for a corporation as well.

I don't go out and buy software and pass it around to twenty people. But if I have two or three computers, and I am the exclusive user (or even the prime user), there is no reason not to have one copy of the software PER USER rather than PER MACHINE.

Gates, Balmer & Co., have a legitimate stake in preventing endless piracy of their software. If the software allowed up to, say, 15 "no questions asked" installs per license, I would think that was fair. That would allow, say, for an install on three machines; and on each machine it would allow for four additional installs, taking into account changes of hardware in the machine, software conflicts or viruses that crash the machine, etc. But 2 -- count 'em 2 installs - per license. It's ridiculous. As if Bill Gates could only afford to buy about eight aircraft carriers, that's how much wealth he has, instead he needs nine or ten.

I think (hope!?) that corporations are going to get wise, and start making Linux their primary operating system. When that happens, applications like Quicken and FrameMaker and RoboHelp will quickly port to Linux, we'll all move over the Star Office, and then Microsoft might reconsider their policies.


Steve Oppenheimer
Technical & Marketing Writing
writer -at- writemaster -dot- com
www.writemaster.com

From: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>
The majority of Linux users fall into one of several camps. The first camp is the free software advocates, who are against any proprietary software and won't use it, no matter whether the
manufacturer is Microsoft, Adobe, or anyone else.This group is probably the smallest of the three.

The second camp is the open source advocates.This group uses Linux because of its stability, and the belief that open source software is of higher quality, has fewer bugs,and develops quicker than proprietary software. This group may use proprietary software if no other tool is available. For example, Linus Torvalds, for whom Linux is named, insists on using a piece of proprietary software for kernel development (and has come under attack for it).

The third camp consists of people who simply want to try something new. This group has no strong feelings about Windows or any other proprietary software one way or the other. This group is probably the largest of the three, although the second is probably a close second.

I've listed these groups in order of their acceptence of proprietary software in general and of Microsoft in particular. However, even the free software advocates don't spend a lot of time thinking about
Windows. For many of them, Windows is mostly irrelevant. They may worry about some of Microsoft's manoeuvers in the marketplace, and the second and third group may keep Windows around to run an occasional program, but that's about it.



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