Slashdot Mirror
The Age of Aggressive Linux Advocacy Is Upon Us?
GonzoJohn writes "Jamie Harrison, founder of GBLUG in Glen Burnie, Maryland, has written an exclusive editorial for Linux Orbit about how he sees the state of Linux advocacy.
"Whether we want to admit it or not, Linux has entered a critical period in its development - a period that may, in fact, determine in fate forever.
Now that Linux is no longer a strange little niche Operating System, and has developed to the point where Microsoft actually feels threatened by its proliferation, the folks in Redmond are doing everything they can in the way of software design, legislation, regulation and control of the internet to snuff Linux out. The main reason that they have failed up to this point is that Linux has matured and grown in popularity, gaining public and private defenders in the consumer market and especially the corporate boardroom."
Read the editorial here" I don't think that I agree with all the points here - but it's an informative read if nothing else.
For all Linux's technical superiority to Windows, we as a community must not be seen as childishly attacking Microsoft. (A trivial example being spelling their name with a '$')
Most non-technical people perceive a community by their loudest members. If all the 'Linux' community can offer is "Mickey$oft SUXXX!" and "You're too stupid to write your own device drivers, you don't deserve a computer!" then Linux shall forever remain a niche Operating System.
I seemed to feel a tone of 'manifest destiny' in the article. Is it just me who believes that philosophy is completely irrelevant to Linux?
We don't NEED to gain market share. We don't NEED to singlehandedly supplant Windows in order to be successful. In fact, if Linux does supplant Windows, it's just going to become the next widely-hated major OS of the time, until someone else comes along and supplants Linux. Doesn't sound like fun to me.
What goals does the Linux community have, other than supplanting Windows? Hrm.... creating an autonymously stable and useful operating system. Showing the Windows world what it's like to build an OS that interoperates with the majority of standards out there. Tons of others.... Why do we feel this conquistador-like goal to take over the OS world? It seems bullish and idiotic to me. There are much better things we can accomplish, cooperatively, when we're not wasting our time trying to dominate. If we keep this up for too long, Linux really will be the next Windows, in all the worst ways.
.... um, i lost you after "0110100001101001".
Be active in the Linux community!
Sure. I'd like to contribute to linux by answering newbie questions (even though 90% of these can be found by a google search or the first 5 lines of the man page)
However what annoys me most is some GUI features of linux. I'd really like to help improving that. Now the problem is that I doen't speak C++, and I don't want to spend years learning it.
I would be able to make a drawing about possible improvements, but I do have the feeling that peaople that are not 31337 just won't be taken seriously by true coders.
So: Would there be a way for non-coders to make a contribution to GNU software?
We have to be realistic. Even if Linux usage on the desktop increases by 400% over the next several years, it isn't going to make any real difference. Why? Because Microsoft has the high ground. They make massive financial contributions to the right people - namely the campaign funding pots of the US government.
In 3 years time, Microsoft in conjunction with AMD and Intel are going to start setting up a hardware and internet infrastructure which Linux will not be able to run on. Want to install Linux on your new PC? Can't - the CPU won't let you because it doesn't support their properterial encryption. Want to run a DVD, a Direct X game, a TV tuner, a new 'security concious' hard drive or motherboard? Can't, for much the same reasons. Next it'll be email, then webpages, and so on.
Anti trust laws you say? Won't work. MS has more power over the US government than the oil barons. Think about that. There is also another dimension. There is a little thing called 'war on terrorism' on right now, and having every computer in the world capible of being easily monitored, controlled, observed and disabled by US inteligence agencies, because of the next version of Window's 'security', will greatly appeal to them... don't underestimate this factor.
If you want to stop Microsoft, extending the user numbers isn't going to help much. Microsoft can simply cut off the air supply. The only way to stop them now is to actually get politicians in power who aren't all incompetent or corrupt fatcats.
..given that some of us have been doing this exact thing for 10 years. I went and bought Caldera because it had WordPerfect for Linux. I bought Civ III for Linux from Loki. A LOT has changed since 1992, when vendors would stare blankly at you and say "Linux?". Anyone remember the fights with Diamond and ATI over releasing specs? How about the vendors that were distributing binary-only drivers until we reverse-engineered the hardware and made it work anyway? Here we are now at the point of vendors going out of their way to tell us it works with Linux, or runs Linux.
Is Linux ready for the commercial desktop? You bet. The apps are there, the OS is solid, and net admins can easily manage large installations.
Is it ready for the home desktop? No way. The home apps aren't there (read: games). Not everyone is or wants to be a system administrator. Look at the zillion unpatched windows boxes out there and think what would happen if they all had a [Apache|OpenSSH|ftp] vulnerability? What if the vulnerability was in something more obscure, like snmp? RedHat and Ximian (and others) have made great strides in getting there, but there's a lot of work remaining to be done.
So go out, do the things you do, and spread the word. Write documentation, submit bug reports, fix bugs, buy software, register hardware and tell them you use Linux.
(Note: This is a repost of a post made in reply to another post under the "Is Linux Dead?" thread from a couple of weeks ago. The original post advocated more commercial-type advertising for Linux and was titled, "Advertising would help")
Wrong. Let me explain please.
First, please do know I'm one of the three (a rough guess) people on the planet who are deep geeks with a marketing background. Okay, that said, here's some info to graze upon.
In the marketing world all research for the past 100 years shows that the very best -- bar none -- type of advertising is, surprise, word of mouth. Nothing has every beat it, nothing ever will beat it. People will trust the opinions of people they know first hand over any advertisement. Why do you think there are so many ads which try to establish that type of trust relationship in the minds of the ad viewer? These types of testimonial ads are among the most successful types of ads, but pale in comparison with "word of mouth" in terms of pure clout with the target audience.
Linux is doing as good as it is (which is very good indeed) because of a number of factors: quality, cost, and -- ta da -- the number of in-the-know technical people (computer geeks) who say it's as good or better than the commercial stuff available. Word of mouth advertising by people who have the confidence of the people with whom they're talking.
Who do you think mom or grandma or little brother/sister is going to believe, Microsoft ads or you? If they have any experience with MS product over the past ten years then they're not going to be inclined to believe anything in a MS ad -- their personal experience tells them MS marketing is geared toward getting the money out of their pocket and MS product is not very good.
You, the techincal person in-the-know, are in a great position compared with MS. You have a product with outstanding quality, an impossible-to-beat value-to-cost ratio and an entire, world-class army of other techies who are saying the same thing you are.
In my opinion, Gnu/Linux/OSS/Freeware advocates would do best to just keep doing what they've been doing. Don't focus on bashing MS, just make honest comparisons, be up front with newbies about the learning curve (harder to learn, easier to use) and focus on the benefits of the product when compared with the competition. You'll continue to win big!
Frankly, if I were leading a marketing push for Linux right now, I'd say that it's time for the little guy to be "on." Not the uber hackers (who do their own stuff so well) but all Linux users: Time for them to really focus on truely helping others understand the choices available and then helping them get going down the learning curve (which has become much shallower in the past year -- Gnome/KDE/OpenOffice.org -- hero-level work folks, congrats and thanks!)
So, if you want to help the world avoid continuus and expanding MS hell:
1. Join your local LUG or start one.
2. Learn how to make a simple press release and learn where to send copies for your area.
3. Offer some free evening classes to individuals and small businesses via the press releases (donate some time -- see next item.)
4. Make sure there are resources in your area for individuals/businesses (consultants, tutors, etc. -- if you're not seeing $$$ by now you're blind.)
5. Always remember that you serve yourself best when you do your best to help those you are targeting. This is the essense of quality! I know it sounds odd, but it works: The more helpful you are for your audience, the more rewards you'll see for yourself.
I coulda/shoulda/woulda been a preacher but that whole god thing really got it the way.
Everything in the Universe sucks: It's the law!
I believe that Microsoft actually doesn't mind that Apple exists.
#1 Their OS only runs on propriatary hardware and the number of deployed systems is quite small compared to the number of Windows systems.
#2 Microsoft is able to make money from Apple users through application sales (Microsoft Office)
#3 Microsoft can point to Apple as being a worthy competitor thereby reducing the effect of Microsofts monopoly. (remember, Microsoft made a big contribution to Apple at a critical time not so long ago).
Basically, at this stage, Microsoft has nothing to fear from Apple. Once (if ever) Apple is able to take more than 10% or 20% of the market from Windows, watch out.
Microsoft fears Linux because they realize there is no easy way to make money from the Linux users other than porting (and maintaining various flavors for each version of Linux) Microsoft Office.
Linux runs on nearly every platform and is primarily used on cheap X86-based hardware rather than expensive propriatary systems.
Don't anthropomorphize computers, they don't like it.
Me: G'day gorgeous can I buy u a drink? ... um.. there.
Her: I'd love one. Whats that on ur shirt?
Me: It's Tux from this cool new OS called linux.
Her: Um... i gotta go stand over
Me: Damn that stupid article.
You can use the Microsoft tradename in your comments as you like.
Microsoft's right to the trademark only extends to the right to attach it to products being sold. It does not have the right to prevent the of their trademark in public discussions about their company or their products.
Besides, if you use the correct trademark "Microsoft", then the comments you make will be correctly associated with the correct trademark and not some fake moniker.
So, use "Microsoft". I try not to ever use MS, Micro$oft or any other false name.
It is the tradename that should carry the burden of the bad reputation causes by Microsoft's illegal acts. Not some other name.
NexuSys - Linux support by the best
The philosophies of Linux are not only relevant, but essential:
- Open Source. Whether you're a purist like RMS or not, the ability to [have someone working for you] see and occasionally modify source code is central to the value that Linux offers. It makes it possible to optimize the OS and core applications for specific hardware and purpose of the machine, customize the system to completely remove unused components for security reasons, etc.
- Open Protocols. Even when we don't have access to source code, we have well-established open standards for how programs providing certain services should communicate with other programs. This philosophy grew out of, and simultaneously made possible a corollary *nix tenet...
- Open Data Formats - Text Files. The configuration info for a program is held in an
.rc or .conf file that can be accessed just like any other file, not buried under layers of misdirection of GUIDs like {02468ACE-3F57-11AF-B579-08002D30DEFD} within a database stored in a proprietary format. This in turn makes possible another facet of the philosophy... - Interchangeable Parts. Don't like EMACS? Fine. Use vi, or a thousand other editors. They all manipulate text files, and once the file is created, your compiler, interpreter, or whatever really doesn't care. And this fits into another *nix philosophy...
- Small, Sharp Tools, or Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination. Most of the work to be done on a *nix system can be accomplished by combining specific tools in a shell script. Metaphors such as piping and command substitution make it unecessary to compile a custom application to do what can be accomplished via
Without these philosophies, there would be no reason to prefer Linux to any other OS[100% ISO 646 Compliant]
SVM, ERGO MONSTRO.