Linux World domination (was Re: [NCLUG] PC for Linux (Ubuntu))

[John L. Bass]

Chad Perrin wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 11:23:59PM +0000, grant at amadensor.com wrote:
>   
>> Some developers who write applications for shrink-wrap may lose out,  
>> but there are far more of us who write things for in-house use, and we  
>> will be unaffected.   It will take less time to write the same code,  
>> but they will not need less of us because we will be able to cost  
>> effectively replace packaged software.
>>     
>
> Agreed.
>
> There are many other business models that may also support software
> developers as employees, and also don't depend on any copyright law at
> all.  Writing code for Microsoft is not the only way to make money as a
> developer and, in fact, that is a vanishingly small percentage of the
> total number of paid developers in the world.
>   

I also agree the FOSS doesn't take salaries away, by it's self. Public 
domain software has been around longer than proprietary, and has thrived 
side by side with proprietary. It's the small part of the FOSS movement 
that also share the RMS manifesto goals, supported by those that do not 
understand the value of the global intellectual property laws (that 
allows GPL rights by law).

I do disagree that it's "vanishingly small percentage of the total 
number of paid developers", and I've never seen any stats anywhere to 
support such an argument, and walking thru any shrink wrap isle suggests 
otherwise. Can you please cite?

One of the problems with advocating Linux on the desktop is quite the 
opposite ... all the good titles are shrink wrap, and are not ported to 
Linux because some in the FOSS movement are very hostile to proprietary 
binary only products. This creates a chicken and egg problem, which 
slows Linux progress on the desktop. Ditto with servers, where a lot of 
core business application are developed only for Microsoft Servers, and 
they refuse to port to Linux. Browse the shrink wrap software section, 
and look for titles that install on Linux. Nearly all MS PC, with some Mac.

John