Desktop Linux's Future

[Lee Braiden]

On Tuesday 19 July 2005 15:05, Larry Grover wrote:
> Lee Braiden wrote:
> > There are quite a few nasty things that would happen if Linux went
> > mainstream.
>
> Nasty things?  Like what?

Like all the things that happen on Windows:
* commercial software that's full of spyware and backdoors
* commercial interests taking the distros and desktops off in directions they 
didn't mean to go by listing their software in menus by their company name 
rather than the software's purpose, etc.
* users demanding simpler distros that have less security
* misinformation from users who don't really know what they're doing
* etc.

These are just minor annoyances of course, but they're definitely not 
something I'm waiting with baited breath to see happen.

More importantly, most average folks who hear of linux right now hear of it as 
Open Source, which it isn't.  The FSF started Free Software to help people 
attain software Freedom, and if they all jump on board linux now as just a 
watered-down "open source" alternative to windows rather than a Free Software 
solution to people infringing on their rights, they'll completely miss the 
point, misunderstand what Free Software is all about, and turn it into just 
the next non-free system by not rejecting commercial attempts to steer it 
into patent minefields etc.

-- 
Lee Braiden
http://www.DigitalUnleashed.com
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