[Ilugc] why GNU should not be added to linux
- From: pravi.a@xxxxxxxxx (Praveen A)
- Date: Sun Jun 6 04:02:54 2010
2010/6/5 Balaji Damodaran <damodaran.balaji@xxxxxxxxx>:
well yes. Try convincing a person who tried linux, said it sucks and
went back to windows just because it didn't play his/her pirated mp3
songs and avi movies off-the-shelf or because he/she couldn't play
their favorite video game, about freedom and RMS and his ideology and
why microsoft is evil.or just google for 'linux disadvantages' to come
to reality.
Many people advocate Free Software and GNU/Linux for its Freedom.
Getting maximum number of Linux users may not be the top priority for
some, but to teach people to value their Freedom. At the same time,
there are people who consider getting more market share for Free
Software is their ultimate goal, irrespective of whether the users
appreciate the Freedom or not. Depending on which side you are, you
can focus your efforts. Some of the disadvantages you highlight are
legal, except for the US, at least for now, there is nothing that
stops Free Software from being able to play mp3's of off-the-shelf
videos. This problem comes because US is a huge market, but there are
many distros that supports multimedia out of the box, like linux mint,
mandriva. Plus getting that fixed is not a big problem, but obviously
not easy for a new user.
I find it very hard to convert a person to use linux as his/her host
OS. Mind you, they are really good developers. The ?moment you say
that you need to type a command that goes like "sudo apt-get install
foo" - they just frown. They'll eventually get to know the terminal
and some may even end up liking linux, but the point to note is that
some like to change, some don't. And they DO appreciate linux as their
development environment, but it just doesn't fit their choice as a
desktop os.
Why don't you tell them to choose add or remove software from the menu?
That will be a whole different thread all together. linux desktop OS
share is a still scanty little 1%. (excluding millions of enterprise
linux servers)
Shouldn't our focus be on improving the UX of linux and reach out to
the masses? Will forcing people to call the OS as GNU/Linux address
this problem?
If all you care is market share, go ahead and call it whatever you
like, the point of stressing GNU is to highlight the philosophy. There
are people already distributing GNU/Linux, without adding GNU or even
Linux to it. So asking to call it GNU/Linux is not to address this
problem. If you don't care about the philosophy, call it whatever you
want, like many others, problem solved.
I believe we have a bigger problem to solve, Linux is still niche.
Meant for those who know code. RMS is god - emacs, FSF, GNU are his
legacy. Take a bow, but I don't think his childish behavior is helping
at all.
That is your belief, there are people who share this and who don't
share this. So work with people who share your vision and cooperate
with others on matters which are shared - like patents, DRM or
whatever. But multiple visions/beliefs will continue their efforts to
influence the other.
And why is it important that they *should* know the history of an OS?
Does Microsoft insist that whoever buys windows should know that the
first DOS was written by Bill Gates and his reason behind development
of OS --> A computer in every home.
Because unlike any other software GNU project was started for Freedom.
It taught the world to fight for it and built up a complete Operating
System which gives every user Freedom to use, learn, share, modify and
distribute. If you don't think it is not important you are Free to
call it Linux or Open Source or whatever you like. Many who already
does that.
See, Ubuntu is the most *user friendly* OS, IMO. They don't even
mention that their OS is based on Linux in their homepage. Few
iterations down the line, the won't even claim that they're a linux
distro.
It is not an accident that Ubuntu is user friendly. Years of hard work
is behind it.
If everyone was focusing on just the artwork or marketing, we wouldn't
have Ubuntu as we see it. Even now it the result of hard work many
distributions and up streams. If you think Ubuntu _alone_ made your
printer to work out of the box or have your system detect your hard
disk, or let you read and write disks formatted with Windows file
systems, or help you seamlessly work with Microsoft Office documents,
then you are not seeing the whole picture. It not same a single
company created Operating System. You may not care, many who may not
care either. Those who care would continue to push the ideas and
ideology that made all of this possible.
Android, Chrome OS are based on Linux kernel (I guess google knew
which one is difficult to start from scratch)
Does Linus go around shouting foul about Ubuntu, Android, Chrome OS (yet)?
Because Linus does not care. He has a different philosophy from RMS
and Free Software movement. Everyone is free to choose from whichever
philosophy they like or don't care about any philosophy at all.
GNU and Linux represents different philosophies and choosing a name
means you pick a side. It is fine that you pick a side which you are
comfortable with.
GNU philosophy gives most importance to Freedom of computer users, where as
Linux philosophy gives importance to best tool for the job. It is only
natural that some follow the GNU philosophy and some Linux philosophy
(Free Software and Open Source).
I feel comfortable with GNU philosophy and I call the system
GNU/Linux. If you feel comfortable with Linux philosophy go ahead and
call it Linux. Lets promote the operating system for our own reasons.
Praveen
--
???????? ???????????????????
<GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call!
<DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak?
(as seen on /.)
Other related posts:
