Posted by: Per Abrahamsen
on January 06, 2004 01:53 AM
You probably need to distinguish between two kinds of end users, those who use the software at work, and those who use it at home.
The first group *does* (or should) care about access to the source, and are able to do something about making it more accessible. They pay developers to do so, either through their employer who want to increase productivity, or through trade organizations. And this is not hypotetical, it is a multi-billion dollar industry where companies like IBM are paid to adjust the software to the need of the individual companies. In the case of IBM, an increasing fraction of the software they support are free, even if it isn't yet on the desktop. Sun, on the other hand, is already doing a lot to make the free desktop more usable, through OpenOffice and HCI improvements to Gnome.
I don't see how free software does much for the non technical home users though, except that they can reuse the free office tools at home. For problems that are specific for home users, they will either have to be able to use nerd-software, or go for proprietary solutions.
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Posted by: Per Abrahamsen on January 06, 2004 01:53 AMThe first group *does* (or should) care about access to the source, and are able to do something about making it more accessible. They pay developers to do so, either through their employer who want to increase productivity, or through trade organizations. And this is not hypotetical, it is a multi-billion dollar industry where companies like IBM are paid to adjust the software to the need of the individual companies. In the case of IBM, an increasing fraction of the software they support are free, even if it isn't yet on the desktop. Sun, on the other hand, is already doing a lot to make the free desktop more usable, through OpenOffice and HCI improvements to Gnome.
I don't see how free software does much for the non technical home users though, except that they can reuse the free office tools at home. For problems that are specific for home users, they will either have to be able to use nerd-software, or go for proprietary solutions.
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