Re: Non-issue

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Re: Non-issue
by Keith Russell on Wednesday 01/Sep/2004, @23:50

> Windows' culture is based on greed...it always has been.

Please put down the broad brush, and slowly step away. It may have taken a while to catch on, but there is now a thriving open source community targeting the Windows platform. Trolltech may like to say otherwise*, but I think that's because they don't know how to search SourceForge**.

> I believe we should be encouraging migration from Windows, not attempting to graft parts of Linux onto Windows' already broken architecture.

First of all, the effort to port Qt itself to Windows has already been made. It simply is not available under a license that allows it to be a first-class member of the open source community.

If you want to encourage migration from Windows to Linux, you need to make the operating system irrelevant. The best way to do that is to provide as many cross-platform open source applications as possible.

There's a major psychological barrier to switching operating systems: Losing functionality. That fear of a Linux version of an app either not existing or being unsuitable to task is a major concern. It will become *more* important as Linux works out its remaining usability issues. Progress is being made: OpenOffice.org is replacing MS Office, Mozilla apps are replacing Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, and KDE *could* replace Explorer. Someday, with enough cross-platform open source apps, users will realize that they can make the jump to Linux, and not lose any capabilities they had in Windows.

Maybe it will be a slow migration, maybe it will be a mass exodus from the next Code Red. However it happens, sooner or later, Windows USERS will start heading down the road to Linux. And we, as developers/IT professionals/geeks, can either ease their journey, or put roadblocks in their path.

*: http://dot.kde.org/1081772638/
**: http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/trove_list.php?form_cat=216&discrim=15

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