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Re: [ox-en] Where is a Common Linux?

Franz Nahrada wrote:

Today I want to break out of our visionary discussions to ask a question
very rooted in todays realities.

I see the christmas computer market boasting with new processors,
multimedia capabilities and so on - and of course still Windows Vista
everywhere.
1. I also see a lot of notebook computers running Linux, which seemed for a while to have become the defacto norm for the cheapest computers. Now there are stories in the press saying that they have a higher return rate than windows based ones because customers tend to think they are faulty when they don't behave exactly like windows, and so the vista-based notebooks are starting to drive them off the market.
2. I went for a coffee this morning and the guy at the table next to me - who was trying to get some funding for a project - was saying (as near word-for-word as I can remember):
'Of course with the downturn we may need to consider open-source technologies in terms of the value proposition'.
In both cases I don't see the big deal about getting Linux more widely used:
In the first case, if notebook customers only want a system which mimics Windows as much as possible, why is it better if this is Linux? They are asking for a supposedly neutral 'technology' which has discarded all the social features of Linux. There is no essential feature of Linux (any more than a commodity has a crystal of value in it, to refer to another thread) which makes it good to spread; the important thing about it is the social relationships it embodies. Remove those, and what is left but a different version of windows?
In the second case, there is a distributor of some sort (presumably server-side in some way) who wants to slot free software into the hole left by removing a piece of proprietary software. Just the term 'open source technologies' is enough to tell you the working cultures, practices, hierarchies of his workplace will be entirely antithetical to free software. He will want a support contract, rather than a vibrant community. He will most certainly not want anything fed back because of the legal risks. He will want to make sure there are multiple levels of administration with any developers firmly at the bottom. Why is it better if he uses Linux than proprietary software?
I guess mine is just a rerun of the old open source/free software debate; what is the point if freedom isn't part of it? Why do you want everyone to be buying Linux computers, if what they do after is exactly what they always did before? 

Graham
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