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Linux and Android has arguably made inroads with non-techs, not because of Stallman advocating Free Software, but because people who echo Stallman's words. RMS
by PaulRobinson 10y ago
Linux and Android has arguably made inroads with non-techs, not because of Stallman advocating Free Software, but because people who echo Stallman's words.
RMS is not expecting everybody to read this and go "Oh, OK, I won't use Uber". He's expecting a few thousand people to read it, choose not to use Uber and then explain to their friends the reasons why echoing his own words. If convinced, those friends will pass it on, and so on, in a network effect.
You forget just how close Linux was to being ousted from the enterprise back in the 1990s and early 2000s - if it wasn't for a similar network effect (specifically arguments around security), Microsoft would now basically be "the computer company", and we'd all be screwed.
- SCdF 10y agoSure, so what I'm saying is: there has to be a "correct" alternative to uber (as linux was to ms) and then you're providing an actual reasonable proposition for switching. I do not think telling people "don't use uber" when it's clearly cheaper and more convenient is going to be hugely productive.
- praptak 10y agoThere is, it's taxis. Where I live they're getting close to Uber in terms of convenience of ordering one.
- theparanoid 10y agoLinux made inroads because of economics. Case in point 15 years ago Free Software and Open Source were competing slogans. Today Open Source won not Free Software.
- douche 10y agoAndroid has made inroads because it is the operating system on your phone if you can't afford or choose not to buy an iPhone.
- nickpsecurity 10y agoI thought it was because a multi-billion dollar firm pushed onto other multi-billion dollar firms with long-term expectations of them making billions more if they made targets of market share. And this occurred for both sides. Average VC startup isn't going to be a Linux or Android as one is an outlier (like Red Hat) and other happened due to investment by corporate behemoth that was pro-OSS. Probably also an outlier given most aren't pro-OSS.