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de Icaza: Rest of World Will Force US Into Linux
Eugenia writes "OSNews had an interesting discussion with Miguel de Icaza about all things Linux and Novell. Miguel talked about the general patent problem and how this will become the one single stumbling block of widespread adoption of Linux in USA, while he asserts that Longhorn uses some 'new' technologies already found on Gnome and elsewhere. Miguel believes that poor countries will be the first that will adopt widely Linux, and as long the EU won't adopt a similar system to US for patents, Europe will follow soon after, leaving no option to USA but to eventually adopt Linux as well in the long run (despite potential patent problems). Another strategy Miguel discussed was about moving as many F/OSS applications as possible to Windows in order to familiarize the casual users with open source. Among many other interesting tidbits he also mentions that Quark is now using Mono on Mac OS X." Of course, the EU not adopting software patents seems to be less and less likely.
Wrong. As has been pointed out oh-so-many times, not even Microsoft can open their own documents in different versions of Word in the same way. So close enough is good enough for most users.
Yes, but unlike the Metric system, Linux offers actual benefits.
Linux benefits: Free, open, stable, secure, easily modifiable. Saves billions of dollars and reduces dependence on single vendor.
Metric benefits: Measures everything relative to a single lump of iridium kept in Paris and on the incorrect original French calculation of the size of the earth. Good if you really like the number 10... except for time... and angles.
See, the metric system's benefits, while of course they are great, aren't really as compelling, commercially.
(Let the metric system advocacy commence!)
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
The European wasn't bypassed. It's part of the law making process. The proposal bounces between comission an parliament several times until one side accepts the proposal of the other. The comisions proposal will hit the parliament after the election, so elect wisely.....
The rest of the world does work well with the metric system. Recall which country's space probes puked when they converted back to the ancient Imperial system for fuel calculations.
First, I will admit that I didn't RTFA yet, so let's get that out of the way. Mod me down if you don't like it.
That said, I would say that the US is unlikely to adapt a standard just because the rest of the world has. Witness:
www.wavefront-av.com
The "European Union" is not yet "Europe": about half of the European countries, and more than half of European territory are not even part of the EU.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Of course, most of the people in the Parliament directly responsible for this directive were pro-software patents (as the whole purpose was to legalise software patents, and not "clarification" and "harmonisation" like the Commission claims). Let's hope indeed the next Parliament will be ready to show its teeth if we can't get the Council to reconsider.
PS: Here's the whole codecision procedure in pseudo-java. I wonder whether this means that the "underlying principles and processes" of it should be patentable as well...
Donate free food here
The apps are the gateway though. Why do most folks believe they can't move away from Windows? The apps they use daily don't exist anywhere else or substitutes exist but don't provide the level of compatibility or the look and feel (and possibly the workflow) they are used to.
But someone who uses Firefox, Thunderbird/fox/whatever, OO.o, Gimp, etc on Windows will have a MUCH lower barrier to switching away from Windows when the time comes. Suddenly that Windows upgrade may just turn into a Linux install with all their daily apps pre-configured.
On the 1st May the EU surpassed America.
There will be a couple of years of turbulence as the economies are integrated but unless the US swallows Canada and Mexico it's going to be playing second fiddle in the mid future.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
The US is already a major user of Linux. Pick any major distribution, what language is it in? What country does it originate from?
I think there is just a few faulty assumptions here, as well as some mis-applied logic. For example, "MS is evil" is a subjective opinion, and not really fact. If it wasn't for MS and windows, I don't think computers would be quite as widespread as they are now. "The US will follow the rest of the world", while at times they should be doing what the rest of the world is doing, the US will do what it wants, for better or worse (proof: metric system, Iraq)
In PPP figures the EU would be larger economically. It's just that the poster used the wrong figures (plain GDP).
European Union GDP $: 11.50 trillion Per Capita $: 25,300 Pop: 454,900,000
United States GDP $: 10.40 trillion Per Capita $: 37,600 Pop: 290,343,000
I think you have the direction of dependency reversed. The Economist, among other sources, regularly bemoans the fact that the world is far too dependent on being able to export to the US, the "consumer of last resort". If the US were to abruptly cut its imports by enough to eliminate its trade deficit, there would be some pain; but the economies of countries like China and Korea would suffer far more.
At the present time, the US economy is just about ten times the size of the Chinese economy. Assuming that China can outgrow the US by five percentage points per year (say 8% growth to 3%), it will take 48 years for China to "catch up". And the Chinese government is already trying to scale back their current growth rate, realizing that it is not sustainable. China may be the next big market, but it will be a long time before that market is comparable in size to the US.
Unfortunately, we may all get a chance in a few years to see what happens when the US has to make big cuts in its spending habits. The US consumer "engine" appears to be driven by debt, both public and private, and the situation will have to change.
Slashdot's character set is extraordinarily limited, but I do believe he was trying to list the EU's figures in Euros. I think the Euro is a bit stronger than the dollar right now, but by how much, I'm uncertain.
"America has done some terrible things. But I know that Americans don't cheer when innocents die." -Dave Barry
Being that I work for Novell and am one of the 2 developers on the Evolution Mailer, this is the first I've ever heard of a Win32 port.
As a parent poster above stated, it would require the porting of all of GNOME (well, all the GNOME libs) before you could even begin porting Evolution itself, and that will not be a trivial task as it is very unix-centric.
Good luck to anyone porting it, cuz it sure won't be me.