fif3ls here, finally.

[fif3l]

i have been looking for a good forum about it related subject. i found this site through some google'ng and some other fine handywork haha. im very interested in open source such as linux, it fascinates me that more people dont use it! im even building a "tux" themed car. well see more of that later. ;) ill problly be lurking around alot, just reading up and asking crazy questions sometimes. i dont know very much, this subject just takes up my spare time. glad to be here!!

[Narue]

>it fascinates me that more people dont use it!
I can't imagine why. Pretty much the entire reason Linux exists at all is political infighting among the alternative vendors at the time. Why is it so surprising that vendors with an existing foothold aren't budging much when Linux comes around? Free[1] is all well and good, but familiar is usually preferred.

[1] Assuming (as open source advocates usually do) that your time is worthless. "It's totally free! Excluding the many hours you'll spend learning a new skill set and being frustrated with the tools a programmer though would be intuitive".

[fif3l]

its free and easy to use. i can see how familiar is comforting, i guess i just like to stray from the norm. i mean, i never used linux until my windows crashed, and i was using a knoppix cd as my OS. i knew nothing about computers back then, and i thought it was great that i didnt have to pay to use my computer. i mean, i dont have the depth of knowledge like most people on here, i just like to tinker around with things. i was really hooked when i started to mess with the xandros distro that came with my eeepc while deloyed. from then it was BT3 loaded from an SD card, and now i use some form of ubuntu on all of my computers.. i dont know, i just like how easy it is to change. and most of the applications are free...

im mostly here to just learn, i dont feel like i have much to contribute knowledge-wise :)

[jbennet]

Yeah, free isnt free, there is total cost of ownership, which in some cases, isnt much less (or even more) with OSS.

Also many companies have existing licence commitments which they dont want to let go

[Narue]

>its free and easy to use.
I'll certainly agree that Linux is easier to use now than it used to be. But back when it was a royal nightmare even for technical people to move to Linux, the fanboys were still saying the same thing: "it's free! and easy to use...really, I swear!".

>i dont know, i just like how easy it is to change.
Change is always difficult. I once tried convincing my boss to switch to SVN for source control and got shot down because it would cost too much in man hours. They ultimately made the switch after a losing a lot of money from a source control boo-boo, and the boss' estimate in man hours wasn't far off the mark. It was neither easy nor cheap, but they're happy with the result.

>and most of the applications are free...
There are degrees of free. There are degrees in between as well, but here are the primary three:

1. "It's free and a lab rat could install it in no time"
2. "It's a bitch to install and set up, but doesn't cost money"
3. "It costs a fortune and I'd rather poke my eyes out with a pencil than try to configure it"

Open source software tends to gravitate toward #2 due to the programmer attitude toward ease of use (and open source software is pretty much controlled by programmer whims), though it's getting better.

[stephen84s]

Yeah, free isnt free, there is total cost of ownership, which in some cases, isnt much less (or even more) with OSS.

Now what does this imply ?

[xkey]

I'm a lil surprised that no one pointed out the more obvious reasons LINUX hasn't made as much progress and in-roads as some would like or have expected::

(-) Splintering of distributions (yes a strength at times depending upon if one wants an embedded or very lightweight/flyweight solution) and splintering of the UI

way back when I can remember how easy it was (yes it was easy too *sneers*) to write up unix GUIs in x and use xt/the intrinsics/athena widget set etc etc
KDE and Gnome and <insert your favorite Linux GUI enviro here) haven't been unified/on the same page.

Scale is an important aspect of an application/IT environment. Look no further than video game consoles to see that - PS2 has a lot more games than the atari jaguar.

Also don't forget some people have families to support and need to eat - if you toil away with just grand principles and self-satisfaction in return ... just might need Sally Struthers to do a commercial for you

...seems like ubuntu fanatics and fedora fanatics ... oh n/m see what i mean! lol

the 2 main commercial consumer OSes do provide for a unified platform to shoot at [and to loathe at times]

'm old enough to have gone through the "i don't like the 800 pound gorilla" phase a long long time ago [around the time of Windows ME lol] and am quite happy with developing cross-platform apps for both windows and (fedora) linux

what would be nice is to eventually see a merging of windows and linux to thwart the impending doom that is googlifying the IT universe - then everyone can be happy in Shrangri-La

C++ya,
xkey