User Linux

[Jef Spaleta]

Travis Riddle wrote:
> most home users could care less about FOSS

I would argue that 5 years ago 99.99999% of the entire human population
didn't appreciate the value of FOSS at all. And i would argue, that the
advances FOSS has made getting installed and used, can be attributed
just as much to efforts to educate people as to why there IS inherent
value in FOSS, and not just because FOSS solutions have been technically
better. I would argue that the technical gains FOSS has made is an
effect due to educating people as to why the openness of FOSS is
inherently better than proprietary solutions.
 
To me, the hurdle isn't so much building an 'easier to use' product
aimed at the home desktop user. The hurdle is in fact, educating the
home desktop user, that caring about FOSS, is important, and finding
ways for the non-technical user who does care about FOSS to contribute
back to the process in a way that matters to them.
I believe an easy to use home desktop linux will come, as a result, of
encouraging the home desktop users to be actively engaged in the FOSS
movement, instead of the home desktop product coming first.
Reap what you sow...reap what you sow.
 
> You also can't go to your local Computer Store and buy any piece 
> of hardware you want and have a 99% chance of it working first 
> time with the drivers that are included with it.  Windows users 
> can.

Hardware makers bend over backwards to make sure their products work
with Windows. I doubt a number of hardware makers spend equal manhours
on working with the linux kernel developers to make sure their hardware
works with linux.  That's a chicken and egg situation. You say desktop
users need better hardware support before they will choose linux.. But
hardware vendors are not going to provide better hardware support for
linux until there is a large market of linux user worth their
time....But users need better hardware support first...but hardware
makers need more users first...but users need better hardware support
first....
This argument goes nowhere, without first educating both hardware makers
and users to value the inherent advantages of the FOSS development
models. Again its about educating people to value
open source, not because it has better technical solutions...but because
its a better development process...with the POTENTIAL for better
technical solutions. 

> I am on this list because I would like to see Fedora succeed. It 
> won't do that until certain things change

Name those certain things...
Name the certain things that are SPECIFIC to Fedora Core.
rhel pricing, while a compelling navel gazing thread for a general
discussion about "linux", its certaintly well outside anything that can
be address as part of Fedora development, or by the Fedora community at
large.

-jef"we need t-shirts"spaleta