PJ on "Why Linux?"
Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2004 8:09 am
PJ, from Groklaw, made this statement in a recent interview:<br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>It's free as in speech, as in libre, as in freedom, not free as in beer. That's Linux' real draw, not cost. People happily pay plenty for GNU/Linux distributions, especially in the enterprise. Why? It isn't just customer support. It's knowing that you can trust who wrote it not to stab you in the back. If you can't trust the company, you can't trust their code. Pure and simple.<br><br>"And do you trust SCO now? How about Sun? Microsoft? Business customers are people too. And people are sick and tired of <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>snoopware and viruses and backdoors</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> and all the other things you can't fix or even understand in proprietary software. Linux frees you from those worries. You can learn whatever you want, fix whatever breaks or change whatever you want to make it do something just a bit different, or hire someone to do it for you.<br><br>"People are sick of license terms that <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>treat them like criminals</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, where even when you try hard to obey, you never feel free of that worry...am I allowed to do this? They love GNU/Linux because you can <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>share with your friends and family freely, install it on as many computers as you own at home and at work. Sick of saving proof of purchase certificates under pain of a visit from the IP police and fines when they can't find that piece of paper from 1998. Sick of typing in numbers to prove they bought the software, and having software call home to validate their right to use what they bought, and companies that shove one-sided EULAs down their throats, claiming the right to monitor their hard drive for compliance.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> Sick of businesses that care about money for themselves first and customers a distant second. GNU/Linux opened people's eyes. It offers an escape from all of that…<br><br>"But here's, to me, the best thing about GNU/Linux. It's so pleasant to be in control of your own environment. You can design any kind of look you enjoy, pick from a seemingly endless variety of applications, and do whatever you want without fear. It's a feeling you can never have with any other OS.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>I've bolded certain parts that should really interest those of you who want to feel like you own what's on your computer, rather than borrowing it. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub141.ezboard.com/bxmenclan.sho ... ambit>XMEN Gambit</A> <IMG HEIGHT=10 WIDTH=10 SRC="http://www.xmenclan.org/images/x.gif" BORDER=0> at: 3/17/04 8:10 am<br></i>
