On Dec 15, 2007 7:09 PM, Darrin Chandler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The single benefit of distributing "free" Windows software that comes to > mind is to introduce a user to the idea that free software can be a > viable alternative. I can't think of another reason at all. And the $200 > Walmart Linux PC has already done more in that regard than years of GCC > and Emacs for Windows.
I respectfully disagree. Linux was definitely the enabler for this to happen. How much of Linux's success was because of the GPL is something only historians can tell us, but without FSF/GNU/GPL. Unfortunately, right at that time, bsd was involved in the AT&T lawsuit, or it could have been bsd, or bsd/linux. And as misguided as OLPC is (in my personal opinion), I think that will unleash a brand new population of free software users. > So I think the ideological reasons justifying GNU Windows software are > shaky at best and outright hypocritical at worst, and the pragmatic > reasons just haven't worked. While, as I had mentioned previously, cygwin has stopped me from buying a linux computer, cygwin has also exposed people to "unix" type tools. Whether familiarizing users with free tools help them to move to free OSes is debatable, but I have personally moved people to both OpenBSD and Linux (as in, make it their primary server/desktop). -- http://www.glumbert.com/media/shift http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGvHNNOLnCk "This officer's men seem to follow him merely out of idle curiosity." -- Sandhurst officer cadet evaluation. "Securing an environment of Windows platforms from abuse - external or internal - is akin to trying to install sprinklers in a fireworks factory where smoking on the job is permitted." -- Gene Spafford learn french: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1G-3laJJP0&feature=related
