[ILUG] Re: The I.S.A in the Irish Times

[Niall O Broin]

On 25 Mar 2005, at 15:37, Rory McCann wrote:

> The problem is that some people might see
> Firefox/OpenOffice/Thunderbird as no real different from
> IE/Word/Outlook, so it looks like open source people are 'just
> copying' Microsoft. Which hurts any claim of innovation.

The real problem there is that the man on the Clapham omnibus knows 
what he knows about computers from his exposure to Microsoft software. 
Accordingly, anything he sees on a computer is likely to to be regarded 
as 'just copying' Microsoft. Look how that Apple crowd copied the 
Windows user interface.

> We need to find something developed "without the financial incentive 
> of success".

Linux? The Gimp? OpenOffice?

Most open source software has been developed "without the financial 
incentive of success".

> Or try to prove that people pay for open source software development.

You could start by asking Sun how much OpenOffice has cost them to date.


Niall