[Discuss] excuse me?

[Cody Swanson]

Not to overstep my bounds at all and I'm not directing this at anyone on 
the list, it's more of just a rant on the Stallman point of view. I've 
been using linux for over 10 years, I've always had a Linux machine on 
my desk. At the same time I've also always had a windows machine on my 
desk because popular software is only available for that platform. I 
believe that using proprietary software on Linux is just as acceptable 
as using open source software on windows. Anyone who works in enterprise 
has to accept this early on, we run lots of proprietary apps on linux. 
 From a practical standpoint it's not reasonable to expect everyone to 
only use free software, if people are willing to pay for something then 
who am I to stop them from using it. In fact, the more apps a platform 
runs the more likely it is to be accepted as a viable alternative to 
Windows.

One fine example is photoshop, there just isn't an equal on Linux. If 
Adobe put time into making a good port of it to Linux I'm sure it would 
help the acceptance of Linux in production graphics world allowing PC 
users to run a decent stable OS that runs the tools they want without 
paying the Windows or Apple tax. Another good example is drivers, if 
more hardware vendors released Linux binary only drivers I wouldn't be 
stuck messing with NDIS wrapper trying to get my damned wifi card to 
work. Sure open source drivers would be great but Joe consumer doesn't 
give a rats ass about the principle, he just wants the hardware he has 
to work. I think the more hurdles like this we overcome, the more market 
share Linux will consume.

I think Stallman's view that all software should be free is a great idea 
but completely impractical in the world we live in. I'd rather have a 
Linux box that can run all the applications I need and use all my 
hardware without hours of screwing around.