Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on July 25, 2002 03:04 AM
This is similar to "Chicken and the Egg" post here. I thought this deserves its own thread, but I'm not the same person who posted "Chicken and the Egg" post.
1. Basically, most Linux/BSD users are very technical or at least highly savvy and computer literate. Most people don't mind (or actually LOVE) command line and editing config files.
2. Much open source software is really top notch anyway. Pan gives me so many features that I would never even *want* to look at anything else. Agent might have 100x more features than Pan, but the point is, once satisfaction level is reached, more features is not as important. If I was dissatisfied with Pan, then I'd be actively on a look out for a new news reader.
There is not much that can be done about #2. However, I think there are many holes in #2 because not all software is fun to write.
Now, #1 is going to change as more casual users switch to Linux (probably not BSD though, BSD doesn't target desktop except this one company I heard about). But this really is the Chicken and the Egg problem like the other poster said!
Do we get more friendly apps first and THEN people switch to Linux desktop? Or do people switch to Linux desktop FIRST and THEN we get more friendly desktop APPS?
What do you think? I think neither side will really be the "first", but which of the above should be "more first?". I think if we are talking about the casual users, it is less likely they will be the first. It is more likely that shareware authors will be the first (or some other commercial authors) because they are more technically adept to make the switch and because we all know that customers/consumers are kings.
However, if there are not yet enough casual desktop users, some people/companies/shareware authors have to be willing to take a loss and do it for the love of the OS/freedom and/or for their own future when they will be able to make decent money seeling apps for Linux.
My point is... Linux is what we make of it. If both sides wait for the other to jump in first, then nothing will happen.
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Posted by: Anonymous Coward on July 25, 2002 03:04 AM1. Basically, most Linux/BSD users are very technical or at least highly savvy and computer literate. Most people don't mind (or actually LOVE) command line and editing config files.
2. Much open source software is really top notch anyway. Pan gives me so many features that I would never even *want* to look at anything else. Agent might have 100x more features than Pan, but the point is, once satisfaction level is reached, more features is not as important. If I was dissatisfied with Pan, then I'd be actively on a look out for a new news reader.
There is not much that can be done about #2. However, I think there are many holes in #2 because not all software is fun to write.
Now, #1 is going to change as more casual users switch to Linux (probably not BSD though, BSD doesn't target desktop except this one company I heard about). But this really is the Chicken and the Egg problem like the other poster said!
Do we get more friendly apps first and THEN people switch to Linux desktop? Or do people switch to Linux desktop FIRST and THEN we get more friendly desktop APPS?
What do you think? I think neither side will really be the "first", but which of the above should be "more first?". I think if we are talking about the casual users, it is less likely they will be the first. It is more likely that shareware authors will be the first (or some other commercial authors) because they are more technically adept to make the switch and because we all know that customers/consumers are kings.
However, if there are not yet enough casual desktop users, some people/companies/shareware authors have to be willing to take a loss and do it for the love of the OS/freedom and/or for their own future when they will be able to make decent money seeling apps for Linux.
My point is... Linux is what we make of it. If both sides wait for the other to jump in first, then nothing will happen.
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