Re: The New Linux Economy

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

From: Jim Richardson (warlock_at_eskimo.com)
Date: 02/24/04 

Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 10:46:21 -0800

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On Tue, 24 Feb 2004 11:58:38 -0000,
 John Timney (Microsoft MVP) <timneyj@despammed.com> wrote:
> Interesting to hear you would pay for something that the majority of
> people think should be free. Thats actually quite refreshing to hear!
>

Speaking for myself, I have spent quite a tidy sum personaly, on Linux
distros, and software I use with Linux. More in fact, than I have spent
on Microsoft equivilents. But then, I am happy to pay for software that
works.

> I like Linux (so no flame wars required), I dont however like the
> misunderstood cost model that creates this expectation that as an
> operating system it is free - its a misconception often found when
> discussing Open Source. It isn't free as you have found, although in
> physical bucks it may not have cost you anything for the operating
> system - support has cost you quite a bit. Perhaps if you did have to
> pay for your driver you would have found it a lot faster and had a lot
> less digging to do. I wonder how much time and effort it has actually
> cost you if you calculate yourself an hourly rate in finding the
> driver you needed, and how much time the guys working on this single
> driver have given to solving this one problem.

as is so often the case, you are making the common mistake of focusing
on the gratis part of "free" rather than the libre. It's a common one
among Microsoft users, (not that they are the only ones)

When OSS is gratis, it is as a side effect of libre. Nothing more,
nothing less.

To claim that "nothing is free because you have to do (whatever) to use
it" is foolish. But ok, I'll play that game.

For me, the cost of using Microsoft software, is too high, not just in
purchase price (which ranges from negligible to OMFG!) but in the effort
I have to go to, to get it to actually do what I want.

I make no claims to "like" Microsoft software, Excel was ok, Word is...
usable, FSVO, and Outlook/Outlook Express? (shudder). None of them are
worth their initial purchase cost to me, let alone the cost in
productivity drop. (Please don't mention OWA, I just ate)

My (personal) Linux support costs have been limited to a couple of boxed
SuSE sets, and some time perusing newsgroups or google. Funny thing
though, I have to peruse newsgroups and google to keep what little
Microsoft software I occasionaly use, alive and (mostly) functioning
also. It's a wash between the two. Which is kind of funny, considering
how much more I use Linux and it's apps, than MS-Windows, and it's apps.

- From a business perspective, it isn't even close, count in the cost of
"licence manangement" and all you can see from using Microsoft software
instead of an OSS equivilent, is a sea of red ink.

In the few instances where there is currently no Linux/OSS equivilent,
I'd consider using a Microsoft solution, but those are few and far
between for me, and getting fewer. Fortunately.

> The diversity of Linux is as you suggest one of its greatest
> strengths, but the idea that you would pay for a driver to the Linux
> community - but not to MS is to me a little odd, although at least you
> "would" pay for someones work which in itself is a credit. Sun and
> IBM, both advocates of Open Source and pushing the Linux boat out do
> not give away the products for free, would you therefore be prepared
> to pay one of these large companies instead......or would these be
> excluded too as they are also very big companies purely out to sell
> you something? Dont take this as a criticism of your findings - its
> not meant to be, I'm just wondering if you considered a wider picture
> in your findings.
>

Be advised that the "person" you are replying to, is simple a troll,
hence your cross post here, in Comp.os.linux.advocacy.

If you want to believe that most, or all of the users of OSS/Linux are
like Bailo, be my guest, perhaps you also believe that all southerners
are named billy-bob.

IBM happily sends me a DVD or CDs full of the whole websphere suite.
Why? because they hope I will use it, and recommend it to others. Funny
thing is, last I checked, websphere used Apache for it's httpd/s dæmon.
Apache, if you may recall, is the single most popular webserver on the
planet, dwarfing all other entrants, combined. IBM manages to charge a
pretty penny for websphere deployments, despite relying on a significant
amount of OSS.

Even Microsoft itself relies on OSS software, although it doesn't like
to talk much about it. Akamai, a service which Microsoft uses to help
ensure site availability of the various microsoft.com sites, runs on
Linux, with apache. The could easily have run *BSD of course. But it's
unlikely that they could maintain a decent margin, if they were paying
licence fees to Microsoft for each machine.

> My biggest gripe here would be why the manufactureres if your
> S3/ProSavage chipset board didn't have a Linux driver in the first
> place. Pity the open source community is indirectly doing the work
> for this company and not getting paid for it, its the S3 manufacturer
> who is creaming it in here- the good will of the open source community
> will save them a lot of money and hike their profits.

Agreed, they are making a big mistake. But I for one don't care if they
write a closed source driver, I would be more satisfied with them
releasing the info needed to write an OSS driver.

I can't afford to rely for support, on a company that might go under, or
drop the product.

I am happy to pay for quality, I am not happy to pay for schlock. Most
software (closed or open source) is schlock. But the schlock in the OSS
world, tends to either improve, (rapidly) or die, and get ignored.

 Followups set to cola

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-- 
Jim Richardson     http://www.eskimo.com/~warlock
They may call it 'ant and roach spray' but it sure does a
 number on birds if you spray them with it long enough.

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