Hi all,
This mail is not intended to create disagreement or war. Its just for
discussion.
I see many are interested in creating awareness about FOSS and OSS (somebody
told me both are different) thru a Walk or by taking other initiatives. I
thought i should share my views.
The first audience for these kinda awareness programs are The People.When i
say People, it includes all types of People.Refer people to Customers.
Customers are always with high expectations and if they find if some
requirement is not been provided, they would simply jump to another
alternative and they need not ask anybody for that.For Customers, it has to
work, thats it.So, this is also same for our People, whom we are targetting.
Yes, Linux (the Kernel) is free of cost.Many bundle it in distros and
integrate many items properly to make the newly built distro work. Some give
it for free and other charge a small sum for the distro. There is nothing
wrong in this.Developers spend a lot of time in developing it and in return
if they dont get anything, its like "whats there me working on it?". But
before you charge, you should be confident that your product is worth
charging.Now, why FOSS and OSS ?. Why cant people address just as OSS ?. The
term "Free" in the GPL License does not mean that it is "Free of Cost". If
you want everything for free of cost in this world, then nothing can
be.Anywayz, i wanted to address this becoz people are misleaded.
When we distribute CDs for creating awareness and say Linux Distribution is
an alternate to Windows Operating System, we should also think whether it
would suit their already going on day-to-day activities.There are many
issues with Linux distros like Webcam support,audio and video conferencing.
These, have developed a lot and now we can tell we have a viable solution,
but that solution to work we need to get them integrated
well.Butunfortunately, there are also many restrictions that those
software put. For
example, you cannot bundle Skype along with your distribution. So, telling a
noob user to install (eventhough we have tools), this being a basic need, he
would ask -" why should i,will you not provide me when i install your OS? ".
Even for mp3,dvd supports and other codecs, it is the same.Even if i give
Ubuntu, we dont have these formats included and the first impression once
the distribution is installed is,"i cannot play my mp3s".
There are still things to be enhanced in the Desktop usage side with Linux,
and i think we as LUG have to take care on how we can improve it and there
by create awareness.Becoz, once we propose or tell-> "please use this",
People will come up with many issues and am sure we do know those issues
already.We should have a team to address those issues and resolve. We cannot
give Distros as such and then forget it.
I think all these points should be considered during awareness
programs/campaigns.The main obstacle of people not using Linux in their
desktops, as i see, is the lack of Yahoo/MSN webcam support. Many parents do
Video Chat every week with their son/daughter abroad.How are we going to
tackle issues like these?. We need to discuss on several issues that we
would face.
Basically, i have the habit of categorizing Users/People into different
categories,like,
1) Normal Desktop Users (No Internet, just entertainment, this can also
include Media Center)
2) Normal Desktop Users with Internet Support (which may/not include
Video/Audio Conferencing)
3) Developers/Programmers (non MS developers, like Java/Python etc.,)
4) Gamers (may/not include 2nd type)
5) Combination of 1 + 2+ 3 + 4
I suggest User to try out Linux based on these categories.As far as today,
only for 3rd type of Users,i have been comfortable to suggest.For other
types, i was not able to convince a normal user(who has not been exposed to
Linux at all) to use Linux, there were many issues which were not
answerable.I dont know why, but we feel its easy but if you look at a normal
user and sit with him for 5 mins, you would have atleast 10 issues.
What i feel is, we have few areas to cover up.For example, we have to expose
people to Skype and what one can do with Skype, then Gaim (Gaim 2.0 has
yahoo webcam support), then aMSN (MSN webcam support), linux supported
hardware devices etc.,These have to reach people somehow, whether it is
through campaign or internet or advertisements or writing books or anything.
I feel we need to be ready before we start our awareness programmes.
Just my thoughts....
--
Regards,
C.C.Chakkaradeep,
Novatium Solutions Limited,Chennai.
http://www.novatium.com
http://www.yoper.com
http://wiki.freespire.org/index.php/Freespire_Community_Board_Home
--
"Sometimes it's better not to ask - or to listen - when people tell you
something can't be done. I didnt ask for permission or approval. I just went
ahead and did it." - from "Direct from Dell"
