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Superior quality of Free Software (was: Re: [ox-en] Re: Business opportuities based on Free Software)



Hi Franz!

Last week (13 days ago) Franz Nahrada wrote:
crox iac-research.ch (Christoph Reuss) Donnerstag, 18. Mai 2006 at 1:06
Uhr +0100 wrote:
And why do you say that "FLOSS would be the hobby of an esoteric circle of
technicians" without IBM and SUN?  Isn't Linux supposed to beat Windoze on
the basis of superior quality --this is independent from IBM and SUN--,
and
isn't FS supposed to be programmed by leisure-time volunteer programmers?
(as opposed to hired full-time programmers at IBM and SUN)

"supposed to"....that sounds a bit idealistic, doesn't it?

Well, AFAICS on [ox-de] Christoph is known to provocate a lot. IMHO it
doesn't make sense to jump on every provocation.

No, I never
bought into this part of the oekonux belief system because I think these
things are only partly true. My understanding of quality is also
useability and not simply reliability, and here at certain points there is
a long way to go. Believe me, more than once I tried to introduce Linux
into my daily life, but that lead to obstacles and dead ends.

Hmm... You had problems with using Linux so you can not see the
superior quality (though from what I know from one of your attempts
I'd even disagree - may be you are expecting miracles?). Well, I have
problems with Windows all day which are a finger snip under Linux and
thus I can see the superiority of Linux quite well. As you can see
arguing on the basis of personal experiences doesn't make much sense.

I think it is more useful to consider facts which are beyond my and
your impressions. So for some simple facts. From the top of my head:
Meanwhile 2/3 of web servers are Apache. All the major Internet
companies base their business on GNU/Linux systems or BSD derivatives.
The Internet in itself is largely run on the basis of Free Softwre.
Public institutions on any level started to embrace Free Software long
ago. ...and so on and so forth...

Please remember: Most if not all of the above examples depended on
proprietary software before. So now the question arises what is the
reason for this obvious paradigm shift? I have only one explanation:
There must be some superior quality in Free Software products or
otherwise all the examples I mentioned above would not exist. And
while we are talking of business opportunities: Of course this
superior quality pays off in money. If a server can be run with less
effort and higher reliability then of course you need to pay less to
administrators.

If you think this explanation is only a belief: Any other explanation
for that paradigm shift?

And as far as Free Software on the desktop is concerned: Though it's
true that there are a couple of initiatives furthering Free Software
on the desktop - especially in the public sector, think for example
use of OpenOffice.org or Firefox - Free Software on the desktop is
indeed not as far as probably many here wish. But what does that mean
as far as superior quality is concerned?

I'd like compare this with your GlobalVillages concept. Would you also
say that only if *everyone* on this planet lives in a GlobalVillages
structure this concept has proven some superior quality - and no
second earlier? If not I'd recommend using the same measurements in
all cases.


						Mit Freien Grüßen

						Stefan

--
Please note this message is written on an offline laptop
and send out in the evening of the day it is written. It
does not take any information into account which may have
reached my mailbox since yesterday evening.

_________________________________
Web-Site: http://www.oekonux.org/
Organization: http://www.oekonux.de/projekt/
Contact: projekt oekonux.de



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