[Gllug] Open Source lobbying meeting - UKUUG London Thurs 19th

[Richard Turner]

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John Hearns wrote:
> It is applications which drives OS choice. Just look at Vivicalc on the
> Apple II for example. Most people will not have gone down to Comp USA or
> wherever and drooled over the 6502 processor and graphics specs - they
> bought it because that's what you needed to run this new Vivicalc.
> 
> Same today - I was recommending my brother to buy a Mac. "But does it
> run Office".

Exactly! That's the same sentiment as not caring what OS my mobile phone
runs, as long as it does what I need it to do.

> People don't choose Windows PCs - they choose PCs to deal with the
> Office documents which other people send them. (Yes, I know Open Office
> exists).
> And as I've said before on GLLUG - where is the killer app for desktop
> Linux then?
> 
> As Chris says, it might be the upgrade cycle for Vista, rather than a
> killer app.
> 

Well, that's also kind of the point I was trying to make: I don't think
there will be a "killer app" that will act as an incentive for people to
begin using Linux. The nature of FOSS means that if such an app came to
exist someone would port it to Windows and MacOS.

I think that as more and more people have always-on Internet
connections, security will become a bigger issue for "normal" home
users. That, and the (current) lack of a need to run
*subscription-based* anti-virus software (who wants on-going costs to
run his computer?!) may start to draw people away from Windows, or at
least get them thinking about alternatives. Perhaps the draw of Linux
over MacOS then will be that it's free - they can try it out and lose
nothing if they decide they don't like it. Of course, in order to start
thinking about alternatives they need to know someone using either MacOS
or Linux...

I can foresee some of my family being quite happy to switch to Linux if
it means they get good support from me once again - I used to be able to
help them with Windows-related problems but these days I've so little
experience of Windows that I can't!

R.
- --
"Racing turtles, the grapefruit is winning..."

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