[Discuss] Essentially all free apps will soon be available on Windows

[Alan W. Irwin]

On 2007-02-15 21:06-0800 pw wrote:

> Alan W. Irwin wrote:
>> I am writing this post because there is an unprecedented opportunity now 
>> for
>> free (as in freedom) applications to be ported to windows because of 
>> CMake.
>> Furthermore, I am all for such ports since I strongly believe that once 
>> most
>> typical Linux apps are available on windows, the MS desktop monopoly power
>> will finally start to weaken as a result.
>> 
>
> Wouldn't we still be stuck with a proprietary OS though?

No. If somebody was using all free apps on windows, then the final step to
move from windows underneath to the GNU/Linux OS underneath would be
extremely easy for them. (I am drawing a distinction here and throughout
this post between the OS which allows just the command-line to work and apps
that run on top of that OS.)

> The windows desktop monopoly is not MS Office, it's the
> *Microsoft tax* paid by everyone when they buy a machine.

Actually, I think MS subsidizes manufacturers to pre-load their OS.  So it
is a loss-leader for MS.  They get their money back (and a lot more) with
subsequent licensing. Suppose there is a full set of free apps available for
windows.  Then that makes it much more difficult for MS to "sell" their
extra licensing fees, and we cut off the MS air supply.

>
> People have had OpenOffice for a few years now and it doesn't
> appear to be making any real dent in MS Office or operating
> system usage. Thunderbird mail and Firefox, as popular as they
> are, are not drawing people to linux or BSD.

You are preaching to the non-converted here.... :-)

I frankly dislike OpenOffice.  Too much typesetting and too little logical
markup.  I far prefer DocBook or LaTeX to produce really nice looking
results using logical markup (mandatory with DocBook, possible with LaTeX).
Also, for quick compact results, ascii cannot be beaten.  I also far prefer
konqueror to firefox.  Finally, I use a CLI mailer (pine) that has given me
outstanding results for more than a decade rather than any GUI mailer.  The
rodent gets old in a hurry when dealing with e-mail.

Anyhow, I think it is freedom rather than any one app that is the true
"killer-app" behind the free software movement.  So I don't think a single
app is going to draw people to use the GNU/Linux OS, but a full set of free
apps that is preloaded (see below) will attract many people and will make it
straightforward to eventually move to the GNU/Linux OS if so desired.

> [...] If your OS and desktop are the only thing
> an *average kid* has ever seen or used, you've won the
> desktop war.

Agreed.  That is exactly the MS strategy.  But suppose some large retailer
(say, WalMart) puts a full set of free apps on all the machines they sell to
give them added value.  Would people go out and buy extra applications for
MS then if they found the pre-loaded apps served their needs?

> [...]If MS-OS comes bundled in the price with the computers
> that the school buys, you've already lost.

I tend to agree with you for the current situation where relatively few of
the many free apps have been ported to windows.  But I think CMake is
a paradigm shift that dramatically changes everything since it makes
it so much easier to port free apps to windows.

Also, you should not be too discouraged by the huge windows inertia in
Canada. Let's face it, the USA views us as a colony and at least some
Canadians are quite content with being a colony so it would be a
revolutionary step to adopt something other than that great American OS,
windows.  So Canada will be the last nation on earth to adopt Linux.  The
situation in truly independent nations like those in Europe and in poor
countries who don't have many billions of dollars to waste is very different
and most encouraging.

>
> Anyway, I can't see how porting all the great linux
> software to windows is going to help linux market share.

I really like the GNU/Linux OS, and I would be very unlikely to ever change
to anything else.  But I think apps are even more important than the
underlying OS, and in fact will help to obtain converts for GNU/Linux as I
have outlined above. Thus, my primary focus of interest is on the free app
market share, and I therefore view the recent explosion of interest in CMake
and porting free apps to windows as something that is extraordinarily
positive.

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation
for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software
package (plplot.org); the Yorick front-end to PLplot (yplot.sf.net); the
Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
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Linux-powered Science
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