Why do I use Linux?

[Joseph Sinclair]

I'd suspect that you use Linux for the same reason many people do.
Microsoft (all proprietary software really) tells you what you can do, then tells you how you can do it, and charges for the privilege.
Linux asks what you want, gives you some tools, and says "Innovate".
Innovation is a natural human instinct, and F/LOSS nurtures that instinct by providing an environment where innovative uses of software, even if that use requires the software to be changed, are allowed and encouraged, sometimes even required.  In a proprietary environment there will always be excessive restrictions to what you can do with the software, because the vendor has a vested interest in limiting your innovation.  The less you innovate, the more often you have to pay them to innovate for you, and the higher their profit margins.  If they can further limit your right to even use what they've created, they can profit even more (think DRM and pay-per-play, RIAA/MPAA drool over that future).

An Example:
Say you want to connect a new whiz-bang RF transmission device to a handheld computer, and create the "Next Big Thing"(sm) in wireless communications.
Further suppose that, to make it more flexible, your gadget is software-defined-radio, and the algorithms run on the handheld.
On Windows, you have to pay Microsoft for a Kernel SDK, pay Microsoft for a "Shared Source" license, and submit to intrusive Microsoft monitoring of your development team akin to a daily Colonoscopy.  When you're done, Microsoft will claim all copyright/patent rights to the myriad changes in the Windows Kernel you had to make to get Windows to work with your new gadget.  Just before your gadget is released to market, Microsoft notifies you that you have to ship a custom build of PocketPC to every user, since they've decided not to include your changes in the mainstream release, and you will have to pay MS a ton of $$ per unit for the OEM license to ship that custom version, causing the price of your new gadget to increase 8,000%.  At this point you give up in disgust and, at the suggestion
of a few engineers, decide to try making your gadget work on Linux instead.
On Linux, you download the kernel source, load up BitKeeper (you'd use Git or SVK if this was done today) and begin developing the required changes.  In the meantime you sign on to the Kernel mailing list and begin discussing what you need to do to the kernel, and why, with the thousands of experts who work on the kernel every day.  In a surprisingly short time you have the kernel modified to work with your gadget, and it's better because the other kernel developers made some really good suggestions.  You send a patch set to Linus and, after some public discussion and a little tweaking, the next version of the kernel has full support for your new gadget, and any similar gadgets anyone might want to develop in the form of a kernel module.
Notice how the proprietary vendor forced the developer to do things their way, under their rules, and pay them at every step.  Now notice how Linux not only encouraged you to make your changes (by making the source and tools easy to get and free of charge or other encumbrance), but made it easy to get help, to improve the results, and to provide the resultant improvements to everyone who might be interested in them, so you have less work to do going forward, and can focus on your new gadget and it's software, not the O/S kernel.
Of course, since the developer in this example did the Windows development first, Microsoft would bring in their legal attack dogs to stop their Linux effort before they submitted the patch set (on the basis that the "Shared Source" license agreement prohibits this kind of crossover development), since the last thing Microsoft wants is more tools that work on Linux but not Windows.

It comes down to the same issue involved in the Massachusetts OpenDocument decision.  You want the right to own the product of your effort, and the right to live free of undue constraint.  The proprietary vendor wants to impose undue constraint at every stage possible, and they want to own the product of your effort, and lease it back to you.  If you accept the proprietary environment, you will pay for the tools to work with, and continue to pay for access to everything you create with those tools, and you may have to give up a lot of privacy (and/or security) to help the vendor enforce their "right" to charge you for access to your own work-product.  The proprietary environment is ridiculously profitable because the vendor now charges for the exercise of basic rights (which cost them
nothing, and they're basic because they're used all the time, so they can charge you all the time).  If you choose the F/LOSS environment, you may pay for some tools (or may not), but what you produce with those tools is unquestionably yours, and you can do whatever you want with the fruits of your labor, from giving it away to selling it for whatever the market will bear, to just leaving it on a shelf somewhere.

==Joseph++


Ric Whitney wrote:
> Invoked by June Tate's reply to my post on the 1984 thread:
> 
> I was never much into Sci-Fi.  The closest I ever got was LOTR and Thomas
> Covenant.  I used to be a Handyman.  I read a lot of Shakespeaere and Dickens -
> the classic stuff.  I started using Windows 3.1 in 95, when I got my first
> computer - a 386 something or other.  As early as 96 I bought a copy of Redhat
> 5.2.  I guess I became disillusioned with the whole Windows thing very quickly.
> I'm still left to ponder my reasons for even showing an interest in Linux in the
> first place.  I installed Redhat 5.2 - couldn't get any kind of dialtone (had
> dialup til August 99 when my son was born.) . What did /, /usr, /var, /etc
> mean?
> I was stuck to C:\.  I'm not sure where I'm going with this, just that I seem to
> be somewhat ignorant in light of June's post - she's so intelligent.  I realise
> that we're all ignorant - only on different subjects (Will Rogers).  I'm fairly
> intelligent when it comes to book lernin'.  I just can't figure out why I turned
> to Linux like I have.  Can anyone enlighten me? ;-)
> 
> Thanks for listening!
> 
> Ric Whitney
> Transcend Development
> "Producing the next phase of your internet presence"
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