On Sun, 2004-06-20 at 04:24, Scott Fors wrote:
> It's unfortunate that I live and work in a windows world and as I
> developer I see how superior many
> of the tools are for windows. That does not prevent me from coming
> home and doing much of my
> work on a Linux box but until there is a comprehensive IDE like Visual
> Studio .net for Linux I'll have to
> have an MS box. I know some of you will suggest Mono, and yes I have
> it and use it to some degree
> but it is not the equal of VS.Net...yet, hopefully soon. Ok so that is
> my example of why I need to have
> an MS box, I'm sure that if you were to ask some of the IT people in
> local government one of their 
> primary concerns would be the proprietary software they use everyday,
> they would probably mention
> the simplicity that windows offers to people that expect their
> computers to work when ever they sit 
> down in front of it. With a lot of end users all they know is the
> application/s they use at work and they
> don't care about anything else, they sit down it works, I'm happy
> therefore their local Network Admin
> is happy to. Converting the Network Admins to Linux will in the long
> run be far more effective then 
> sending letters to government officials who probably won't care enough
> to bother with sending a 
> response.
-----
I don't think that it's unfortunate that most users live and work in a
Windows world as you have stated your regrets. Windows is dominant on
the desktop both in the corporate world and in homes. That is the
reality and that only changes when people are motivated to change
because it's always easier to stay where they are.

The fact is that there hasn't been much innovation in terms of the end
user experience, the end user applications and software ends up becoming
the commodity whose value diminishes as open source gets closer to
delivering a similar experience.

People tend to focus on the price, even going as far as suggesting as
Michael did that Linux is free, and ultimately, it is the freedom from
vendor lock-in, the widely available source codes, the unsuitability of
digital rights dictated by corporate profit motives, and ultimately, the
lack of value offered by proprietary solutions that will win out. 

My neighbor bought a new box, motherboard, video card, cpu and kept his
memory and hard drives from his old computer, only to fire it up and
find out about Microsoft licensing issues. The cost of Microsoft's
software immediately became apparent to him.

Likewise, corporations can't miss this issue either. Though profitable
corporations can absorb these costs, they do stick out and governmental
agencies have gotten the picture through out the world. Michael's letter
naively suggests that the governmental agencies in Arizona aren't aware
of the open source options but most if not all are aware. The fact is
that the only server market experiencing real growth is Linux, not
Windows, not Unix. The desktops will begin migrating in serious numbers
as the Linux desktop matures, which judging by Red Hat's change in
direction, Novell's purchases, HP's offering of Linux desktop machines,
etc., there are some true believers.

Craig

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