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Is Open Source Different In Europe Than In the US?
An anonymous reader writes "The first Europe Open Source Think Tank just concluded and Larry Augustin posted some interesting observations on open source in Europe versus the US. Essentially, he says that users in Europe care more about the open source nature of a product than do US users. US users are just trying to save a buck while European users actually care about access to the source code. Do Slashdot readers observe the same thing? Are the reasons for using open source software different in other parts of the world as well?"
I have some OSS out there, and the ONLY donations I've gotten in 3 years and 22,000+ downloads have been from EU countries. US people (of which I am one) just complain that I don't log into their servers, install the software, customize it, etc. for free for them. They (US users) seem offended when they ask me to customize the software for their company and I quote them a price. And then one [US user] even had the nerve to customize my front end, and then try and charge people for the software package!
But were there Americans involved in these discussions, or just a bunch of Europeans talking about what Americans think?
This space for rent, inquire within.
In all honesty being that I work for a Global company, Europe has I think a much higher quality of life. They are not rushed, they take their time and smell the roses. They have more free time as well and vacations. I am a geek as well and as a geek when I take vacation I typically end up looking into a new technology or exploring something I do not have the time for while working. However I get interruptions while I am on vacation from work as well.
Therefore, they take the time to look through the source code. Here in the US, we do not have the time, so basically we just buy something that gets done what we need to get done open source or not. Even if had the source code we wouldn't look at it. There are applications we have purchased in the company that we also purchase the source code for, however when we have problems we do not look at the source we call support, because we need an answer and we need it now.
A friend of my dad's told me the different between NA and Europe once. He said North Americans live to work, while Europeans work to live. I've found it to be quite true, myself not withstanding.
I like to think of online DRM as something akin to a college -- you pay for lessons until you learn something.
So of the 6 European Open Source projects I can name of the top of my head, 4 are dual licensed.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Sigh. There go my mod points, but I had to speak.
What I really care about open source is that you are practically guaranteed that the bugs will be fixed. You just have to report them (except in rare cases where the actual project is obsolete or it simply sucks).
With "freeware" or proprietary software, you are doomed to accept what the vendor tells you. Oh look, there's a bug! Want to report it? Good luck with that! Specially if it's a product already discontinued by the vendor (i.e. Microsoft Visual Foxpro), where they'll only care about security bugs.
Another good example of an abandoned project was Proxomitron. Remember that one? It was freeware. But guess what, the author had a car accident and died. He never released the source so his project just died.
And what to say, dammit, what to say about the f***ing piece of crap called Internet Explorer!?!?!?!? Is it free as in beer? Yes! Can it be fixed and improved by the community? HELL NO!
I may not contribute back to the sofware pool (yet) and I haven't donated money to projects, but does that make me a greedy bastard? No (the reason why I can't donate money to Open Source is because I don't have a credit card, and no, I don't live in the US so everyoen who blames it on me can simply STFU). I just happen to be in the group of people who care about having software that won't disappear when the author dies or when it's discontinued, leaving me with LOTS AND LOTS OF HEADACHES every time the company I work at requires me to use an OBSOLETE AND DEFECTIVE PIECE OF SH**!
Exactly. Their employees are in Washington state, where your business is supposed to pay income tax because there's no payroll tax. But they put their financial offices in (IIRC) Colorado, so their profits are filed in a state with a payroll tax on the (no) employees, but no income tax.
This way Microsoft dodges paying any more than a bare minimum of taxes, while still enjoying the taxpayer-bought benefits of Washington state.
Privatize the profits, socialize the costs. It's the American way!
As to the 'elitist' charge. The US economy is great for the financial elite, but miserly with respect to anyone with a median salary or lower. In a lab in Europe, the lab assistants got food subsidies at the excellent cafeteria. The lab ran a nice Mercedes bus that picked them up from each of the nearby villages - a nice perk given the cost of gas. So, who is favoring the elite - France or the US?
Think global, act loco
I think they should make DAMNED sure the FBI has the widest latitude in US HISTORY to sift out and bring charges against all those involved in the fraud the got us to this point. The execs involved should be tracked by biometrics and SSN and deprived every step of the way forward if they try to take on jobs (private or as "advisors" to the government entities that will have to dig us out of this morass) that make more than $100,000 a year involved in financial sector work. If they can come up with a $20,000,000 a year job shitting eggs, then good for them, but NOT another $20M + bonuses job in the financial, insurance, reinsurance, commodities, real (fake) estate or the similar industries. But, once identified as fraudsters, they need to be jailed, and i dare say, their assets taken from them and their families' usage/access. SOME of the execs might even deserve to be hanged by the neck or electrified for bilking the public, destabilizing the global economic engines, and lying and holding back on the true state of the "financial armageddon" we now face.
Sure, borrowers can fib or go NINJA/NINA (No Income, No Job/Assets// No Income/No Assets) route on the paperwork, an end up lying of misrepresenting information and facts, but THAT is what the lenders, underwriters, and other processors are supposed to weed out. So, as for blame weight, assign 25% fault to the poor schmo borrowers who CHASED that "merkun homeownership dream (only to witness it ever increasing in acquisition cost, and elusive unless they lie to get into that home...) But, many of the lenders/processors/verifiers were pressured workers or outright greedy assholes (and NEED to be vilified) who most likely felt:
"Well, if WE don't process these loans, then our competitors WILL. So, that means we lose out on commissions, bonuses, and quarterly reportable income/revenues. So, FUCK IT! Hells Bells! Full speed ahead!"
Now, they want to be bailed out cuz loans and the like supposedly are the oil/lubricant of the US market. They should let wall street crash and re-set itself. *IIII* am in debt, and ***IIII**** do NOT get the chance to have some of that $700 BILLION to "reset" my poor, money-mismanaging ass.
THINK, everyone, what $700 B could do:
- rebuild a number of US cities
- pay for the unemployment (yes, social network support) benefits of those who (not the fucking execs) are SURELY going to be laid of without a golden parachute
- pay for the education costs of those currently in college (how many other countries spending less on military matters actually fully subsidize their education-seeking populations, and are the better for it?)
-pay for costs of those who dropped out of college to work to pay off school loans, only to be screwed by the failed economy, take on lower-income jobs that yield too little income to (without resorting to criminal activity) service those federal school loans
- fund the startup ventures of people such as myself who have low income, no assets, no FFF (friends, fools families to co-sign), and no one we can trust to NOT screw us out of our entrepreneurial ideas. We could be linked up with SBA SCORE advisors, mentored, kept on track, and become the new employers more deserving of the $700B than the bastards and bitches who greedily brought the US and rest of the world to the brink of disaster.
These crooked administration and financial jerks are all too keen to exhort "let the market self-correct" but all to willing see corporate welfare bailouts help THEM and their cronies, but not the public. The "experts" LIED about the extent of the previous bailout costs, and not these assholes in DC want a blank check and no accountability on an initial checking account of $700B. If bush gets what he and his cronies want, then probably $300B of that will go to the execs, a few mortgage companies, and the rest will be so ineffectual as to have us seeing 8 months from now another bailout package of $1.5 TRILLION being asked for.
Find them, charge them, de-asset them, and ban their return to financial markets, then jail them, and execute some of them as examples.
(steps down from soap box)
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Amazing isn't it? The US government spends more money per-capita on health care than Australia, Canada, Japan or most European governments do, but still has no universal heath care.