I agree. Given the choice, I'd rather encourage people to use products like Mozilla, as a 'I'd rather give to a community than help boost a corporation'.
I do it because it's only fair to me to give back a little (even though I have a family etc) to those who have given so much.
Good point. And even you can't code, there's plenty else to do. Like checking a few Mozilla bugs are valid and not just down to an old build/dodgy HTML.
Or installing and using stuff, showing it to their friends and advocating it on their websites etc.
Or writing documentation for the projects.
The biggest thing IMO is getting people onboard the OSS software train, and keeping them there.
A friend of mine contacted me recently about the amount of spam he was getting. My advice - get rid of Outlook Express and get Mozilla and use the mail client (and he has lots of crashes with OE).
The changeover is going to take many years, but it's going to start with those sort of small changes.
But that's often what smallish dynamic businesses require. They don't want to have to contact Microsoft everytime they move software around on boxes.
Let's say also that you have an urgent need for a solution. Do you go through all the hoops of purchasing a WinXP server with SQL Server (including internal purchasing), or download Apache/PHP/MySQL and get coding? Particularly if it is a short term, internal low-risk solution.
OK, but let's say you are a company with 100+ PCs and you've just signed an MS licensing plan which is costing an arm and a leg for a bunch of features that your people don't really need anyway.
In 3 years time, you'll be asked to sign up again. Instead you could get everyone onto Linux, Open Office and Mozilla which would do the job (and in 2 years, OOo will probably be fantastic).
The other users, home users just ain't upgrading. They can do their email, browsing and send letters. Why do they need a 2.4Ghz PC or Windows XP? Sure, the scanner/digital camera things are better, but worth the upgrade price?
The idea that Mozilla is somehow not a major player is ridiculous to me. The word where I work is good - people like the dumping of popups, and the skinning.
My virus checker was remotely updated today and a virus was found which opened up tons of windows (mostly harmless JS, but the AV rated it as a trojan)
Of course, using Mozilla with it's popup blocker, I didn't even notice.
I have a friend who told me he was sick of the spam he was getting, so I recommended Mozilla Mail and explained how bayesian filtering works - he didn't even know about it, but he's going to download it.
What he really wants is a way of searching his mails using complex rules rather than just "find email for xyz". Anyone know how in Mozilla?
Another one was when I told a friend about Open Office Beta being able to convert to PDF.
These open source software products are starting to go beyond MS software in features. Where's PDF saving in Word?
I think it's up to those who are respected as family 'computer experts' to start showing the way. Convince family members to convert to Open Office or Mozilla.
If you want to talk to me about this, I'd be glad to point you in some directions.
MySQL is an excellent database, and not that difficult to learn. Do you know SQL already, or what are you moving from on MS?
It's quite interesting to me, as I've been thinking about what attributes I got from my parents. My father is a lawyer, and I became a programmer, and I also have an amateur interest in the law.
Both are based on rules, and both are based upon a certain degree of exactitude. One thing that I notice that many people I know don't is when a law is badly drafted and ambiguous, as I think it comes from the part of my brain that sees badly written and ambiguous specifications.
Occasionally I used to go into either my local pub or to the local Costa Coffee and just work in there. I found working from home very good for hard concentration stuff, but often needed that underlying noise of people to work.
Also, I would have loved to have had wi-fi in some places I worked away from home to download large files.
Tell me (and no fair using google): What album was "Come on Eileen" by Dexy's Midnight Runners released on? Many people like and enjoy the song, but I'd be willing to be almost NO ONE has the album.
Probably a bad example. Kevin Rowland was an ace songwriter, and certainly one other Dexy's album is excellent.
No-one cares less about Metallica any more. They are the RIAA's bitches. Many people have turned their backs on them over Napster. Some people have downloaded every bit of Metallica they can off P2P just as a "fuck you" to them.
The other argument is about the cost of promoting artists.
Of course, in olden days, artists promoted themselves by making damn good music, and it being both promoted, but also by bands getting a small following in clubs etc - a more organic form of promotion.
Now, artists get big by record companies having a full-frontal assault on the media. These artists are normally pliable crap that the companies like, not real artists with songwriting/creative ability who can call the shots.
A combination of the corrupted scratches being put on CDs and the RIAA being heavy handed has driven me to a combination of EBay, secondhand shops and buying from independent artists.
So far, my Ebay successes have been numerous, and I've only failed to get one album I have been looking for.
Want the RIAA to go to hell? Starve them of income.
The "good enough" point is valid for both CD and DVD. Most people don't buy the quality of amps/speakers to warrant DVD-A etc.
Both are copyable, and the record/movie companies will try and come up with new DRM formats, but ultimately, it's probably at least a decade before something will come along in the media which people will want new equipment for.
It's interesting to me that no-one much suggests getting rid of the advantages given by these kinds of technologies, and yet the will to remove drugs which enhance performance is huge.
Both give advantages to people with money, normally meaning that countries which are poor cannot afford to spend such money on their athletes (particularly as people like trainer makers don't have a huge market there).
"Who has the guts and the willingness to do risk-taking to get ink into the standard user interface? Who else is going to push that forward? Who else has the guts to get speech, get the recognition levels up, get the learning levels up in the standard interface?"
Who cares?
When I started using computers 20 years ago, if someone had come up with speech or high speed handwriting recognition, it would have been a winner.
People have moved on and use keyboards. Not only more reliable, but quicker, and you don't need to train every machine you use. You sit down and start typing.
There are undoubtedly uses for pen and speech, but I don't see it as a growth area. People who have things like pen based computer systems for companies (for say restaurants) have specialist hardware (that isn't as large as a tablet). Most people would be better off getting a Palm and some software and saving some money.
Speech is great for disabled people, and for some extreme uses, but that's about it.
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I do it because it's only fair to me to give back a little (even though I have a family etc) to those who have given so much.
Or installing and using stuff, showing it to their friends and advocating it on their websites etc.
Or writing documentation for the projects.
The biggest thing IMO is getting people onboard the OSS software train, and keeping them there.
The changeover is going to take many years, but it's going to start with those sort of small changes.
That would be progress, how?
Another "IT Manager from a Fortune 100 company". I think that's about 120 we're up to on /.
I'd rather you posted with an ID, so we know you're not just flaming. Anyone else backup the stats this guy is posting?
Let's say also that you have an urgent need for a solution. Do you go through all the hoops of purchasing a WinXP server with SQL Server (including internal purchasing), or download Apache/PHP/MySQL and get coding? Particularly if it is a short term, internal low-risk solution.
One that I helped set up had a series of applications talking to a printing package which central templates had been defined in.
People just entered the action on a screen, and the server sent a request to the printing package which printed a letter on a central printer.
All the applications ran through a browser. That company could move the call centre desktops to Linux very easily.
In 3 years time, you'll be asked to sign up again. Instead you could get everyone onto Linux, Open Office and Mozilla which would do the job (and in 2 years, OOo will probably be fantastic).
The other users, home users just ain't upgrading. They can do their email, browsing and send letters. Why do they need a 2.4Ghz PC or Windows XP? Sure, the scanner/digital camera things are better, but worth the upgrade price?
The idea that Mozilla is somehow not a major player is ridiculous to me. The word where I work is good - people like the dumping of popups, and the skinning.
Of course, using Mozilla with it's popup blocker, I didn't even notice.
What he really wants is a way of searching his mails using complex rules rather than just "find email for xyz". Anyone know how in Mozilla?
Another one was when I told a friend about Open Office Beta being able to convert to PDF.
These open source software products are starting to go beyond MS software in features. Where's PDF saving in Word?
I think it's up to those who are respected as family 'computer experts' to start showing the way. Convince family members to convert to Open Office or Mozilla.
If you want to talk to me about this, I'd be glad to point you in some directions. MySQL is an excellent database, and not that difficult to learn. Do you know SQL already, or what are you moving from on MS?
It's quite interesting to me, as I've been thinking about what attributes I got from my parents. My father is a lawyer, and I became a programmer, and I also have an amateur interest in the law.
Both are based on rules, and both are based upon a certain degree of exactitude. One thing that I notice that many people I know don't is when a law is badly drafted and ambiguous, as I think it comes from the part of my brain that sees badly written and ambiguous specifications.
Occasionally I used to go into either my local pub or to the local Costa Coffee and just work in there. I found working from home very good for hard concentration stuff, but often needed that underlying noise of people to work.
Also, I would have loved to have had wi-fi in some places I worked away from home to download large files.
Probably a bad example. Kevin Rowland was an ace songwriter, and certainly one other Dexy's album is excellent.
God only knows how few records they sell now.
Of course, in olden days, artists promoted themselves by making damn good music, and it being both promoted, but also by bands getting a small following in clubs etc - a more organic form of promotion.
Now, artists get big by record companies having a full-frontal assault on the media. These artists are normally pliable crap that the companies like, not real artists with songwriting/creative ability who can call the shots.
A combination of the corrupted scratches being put on CDs and the RIAA being heavy handed has driven me to a combination of EBay, secondhand shops and buying from independent artists.
So far, my Ebay successes have been numerous, and I've only failed to get one album I have been looking for.
Want the RIAA to go to hell? Starve them of income.
Both are copyable, and the record/movie companies will try and come up with new DRM formats, but ultimately, it's probably at least a decade before something will come along in the media which people will want new equipment for.
Sadly, they don't seem to allow these bikes. I'm really puzzled why. They go much faster than normal racing bikes.
Both give advantages to people with money, normally meaning that countries which are poor cannot afford to spend such money on their athletes (particularly as people like trainer makers don't have a huge market there).
You could just try and sell it to the Tate Modern.
I imagine some printer companies would like the same thing. Region coding of printer cartridges, anyone?
Who cares?
When I started using computers 20 years ago, if someone had come up with speech or high speed handwriting recognition, it would have been a winner.
People have moved on and use keyboards. Not only more reliable, but quicker, and you don't need to train every machine you use. You sit down and start typing.
There are undoubtedly uses for pen and speech, but I don't see it as a growth area. People who have things like pen based computer systems for companies (for say restaurants) have specialist hardware (that isn't as large as a tablet). Most people would be better off getting a Palm and some software and saving some money.
Speech is great for disabled people, and for some extreme uses, but that's about it.