[Wolves] FOSS, who's it for? Us or them?

[Andy Smith]

Hi,

On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 12:15:20PM +0100, dick_turpin wrote:
> Adam Sweet wrote:
> > As far as I know, Chrome for Linux is not finished yet but is in
> > development. You can compile it yourself if you want but people say it's
> > just not ready yet. Google has hit the biggest market first and will
> > follow with Linux and Mac versions. I guess the wine effort is for
> > people who don't want to wait.
> >   
> Um why should we wait? Didn't the code originate from the 'Community'? 
> or am I being picky?

I am slightly surprised that you feel that a for-profit corporation,
answerable to its shareholders (not the Linux community) needs to
spend its resources on making their software easily usable for a
niche market.

However, you say "why should we wait" when in fact "we" don't have
to -- the source is available so others can in theory package it.
That possibility wouldn't exist with closed source software.
There's no requirement for Google to be the one doing this.

> > Not a failure of freedom as such, just a misunderstanding on your part I
> > think. When the Linux version comes out, then we'll see. It makes sense
> > to focus engineering time on releasing to the largest market first and
> > then adding the smaller markets. I think most businesses would see it
> > that way while members of the smaller markets who have to wait may not.
> >   
> So Linux is not 'main line' then? But the code is! Interesting.

The reality is that a tiny percentage of people use Linux.

Cheers,
Andy

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