Misconceptions of Freeware

After reading a lot of comments on an article from the Download Squad Why Don't You Pay For Software, both on their website and Digg.com, I was dumbfounded by what I considered huge misconceptions. Can I just be bold and say, in context of comments made on Digg.com, that Freeware is dead! The term freeware applied to a few utilities and games that people wrote for themselves and gave away with no expectations. Free Software Federation products and code released under GNU Public Licence v2.0 are NOT the same as Freeware. Until recently, not much stuff called "freeware" was ever open source.

FSF/OSS and GNU/GPL are supported in industry, by Sun Microsystems, IBM, HP, Cisco Systems, Google, nVidia (in part) and many others. These companies believe everybody needs an operating system, word processor, database, and networking. Could you imagine of Berkley decided to charge everybody for their TCP/IP protocol? If Cisco charged a toll fee for every one of their routers you passed a packet through? Some people tried to actually see that happen. Fortunately, Many of the above named companies stood against it for the sake of freedom, while much of the general public simply didn't care as they continued to download porn from their favorite BBS.

The Linux community and FSF may never be in complete harmony, but I don't think it ever should be. Every different major free open source project out there (OpenOffice, GCC, Gnome, Xfree86, Gimp, Mozilla, Sendmail, Samba, and the Linux kernel, just to name a few) have dramatically improved the way we are productive on our machines. There are lots of people out there willing to trade good code for good code, and are so satisfied with the results, and the MILLIONS of people participating, why not just give it away to everybody else? As long as the above named companies have decided not to compete against each other over 100 stupid ways to patent cat skinning, just let every other moron on the planet have it too.

There is a benefit for these big groups to give it away to the world. Because there is a really good chance that this free software to the morons programming friend that sees how this great software could be a little better, and make a contribution to the big wigs that did 99% of the work.

Now Connical and Ubuntu are something completely different. Smart / computer / industry oriented people have enjoyed the power and freedom of Linux for decades. Red Hat discovered that there is only so much benefit form compiling everything from source, aside from the sheer cycles necessary to complete the task(.rpm). Debian took it a step further by enhancing, effectivly, RPM's to not just check a system for compatibility, but make it compatible, for a package installation(.deb/apt). Ubuntu has taken it to the next level.

AOL, and M$ have their place, and have done certain very specific things extremely well. With debian, you still had to know WHAT to install to install it or ultimately get a particular task done. AOL and M$ don't just put everything in your face, but lock everything down so that you can screw it up but putting administrative tools in either hard to find places, or in expensive IT toolkits. Both AOL and M$ have bullied business to contribute at threat of having no place in the market.

Despite the size of the Linux community, it's influence outside the circle is a laughable fraction of the sum of its parts. The fact that MacOSX users can worship Apple have given them tremendous power outside their own circle, despite the fact there are more Novell, SUSE, and Fedora users out there then Mac users.

Sorry, the Penguin logo just wasn't enough. Sun and IBM have their own business to take care of without worrying how many fps you can get running CS Source through Wine. They just can't care.

Shuttlesworth / Connical is filling in the gaps of this massive Linux mosaic. Ubuntu isn't about Ubuntu, but pimping out those Super Cow Powers; informing people about the best free open source software out there making it installable (correctly) with a simple click, and hard core focus on making Ubuntu the damn easiest operating system to install in history. It is tough to sell even free bread to a baker, Shuttlesworth knew Ubuntu had to be easy to install for the stupidest person on the planet. At that point, not only is it easy to learn everything else, it is easier to use and install. Not only that, but it lets Ubuntu score a deal with Dell. It helps that Ubuntu is really good, but it has to be dumb enough for people that lack the ability and knowledge, not just time, to build their own computer.

Don't forget, as mentioned earlier, sometimes dumb people have smart friends. that's how hey stay alive. Stupid people like to talk a lot (or blog in my case) and sometimes inform smart people about cool things. In this case, Ubuntu. And with the leverage of $10 million, Shuttlesworth can buy good programmers to fill in any gaps the community doesn't want to fill in, to which according recently, not a penny has been spent.

Now, Ubuntu has the power to go after hardware manufactures (f*** ATI). M$ knows what they do right. You know companies actually pay for those stupid stickers / labels that say "made for M$W blah blah blah". Intel does the same thing. AOL still sells Keywords. Ubuntu is at a point where it too is beginning to name brand linux in the media, and soon everything else.

The difference this time is that every other distribution out there will reap the benefits.

A world where we work for free (use free tools) and pay for fun, in my opinion isn't as unrealistic as so many people seem to make it sound.

But for all those out there that say "free software violates economic theory", I completely agree when it comes to video games. You can trade tools for tools, but games for anything but cash is silly.



Hope people enjoyed my first article, as scattered as it may have been. Before becoming a hard core Ubuntu fan, and a complete ex-M$W user, I tried most several dozen other *nux distributions out there for comparison. Check back to see why I picked Ubuntu.

Coming Soon...

A tail of moving completely away from Redmond and proprietary software and my experience. Ubuntu 7.04 is a great tool and an easy replacement for anyone that enjoys using the computer hassle free, more than just the escape from the high costs, but an over all better computing experience.

More to come...


And yes, I promise to fix this got awful layout.