What Will We Use on June 30, 2011?

this came across our wire from the Free Software Foundation

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Windows 7 Sins: Free Software Foundation launches public awareness
campaign against Microsoft and proprietary software

BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA — Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 — The Free
Software Foundation (FSF) today launched its “Windows 7 Sins” campaign
at http://windows7sins.org, making the case against Microsoft and
proprietary software. Preceding the upcoming release of Microsoft
Windows 7, the campaign’s first public action will also be today — a
freedom rally at 12:00pm on the historic Boston Common.

The campaign outlines seven major areas where proprietary software in
general and Microsoft Windows in particular hurt all computer users:
invading privacy, poisoning education, locking users in, abusing
standards, leveraging monopolistic behavior, enforcing Digital
Restrictions Management (DRM), and threatening user security.

These points are outlined in the text of a letter the campaign mailed to
the leaders of the Fortune 500 companies, now published on its Web site.
The letter warns “Windows 7 decision makers” about the “lack of privacy,
freedom, and security” they will suffer should they adopt Windows 7, and
makes the case that they should instead adopt free software such as the
GNU/Linux operating system and the office productivity suite
OpenOffice.org.

FSF executive director Peter Brown said, “Free software is about
freedom, not price. Our growing dependence on computers and software
requires our society to reevaluate its obsession with proprietary
software that spies on citizens’ activities and limits their freedom to
be in control of their computing. There is free software available right
now for any activity you or your business needs, and it is better in the
most important aspect — it respects your freedom.”

The FSF is asking concerned citizens to help get this message out by
nominating other organizational leaders who are also “Windows 7 decision
makers” to receive a version of the letter. Brown continued, “Many
people are frustrated by the organizations they interact with and their
support for a software industry that works against the freedom of
citizens. Our national and local governments, NGOs, and our universities
and schools that use proprietary software are undertaking bad public
policy, often through ignorance or misplaced values. We hope to alert
these decision makers to the positive contribution they can make to
society by switching their organizations to free software.”

FSF campaigns manager Matt Lee added, “With |windows7sins.org|, we hope
to make businesses and computer users aware of the growing dangers of
proprietary software from both Microsoft and other companies such as
Apple and Adobe. With the release of Microsoft’s updated operating
system, business leaders have the opportunity to escape to freedom and
join a growing list of leaders who understand that sinking money and
time into proprietary software is a dead-end inconsistent with their
best interests.”

More information about the campaign, including the text of the Fortune
500 letter and a mailing list that will provide subscribers with
information updates and action alerts, is online at

http://windows7sins.org.

About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting
computer users’ right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute
computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as
in freedom) software — particularly the GNU operating system and its
GNU/Linux variants — and free documentation for free software. The FSF
also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of
freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org
and gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux.
Donations to support the FSF’s work can be made at
http://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.

About Free Software and Open Source

The free software movement’s goal is freedom for computer users. Some,
especially corporations, advocate a different viewpoint, known as “open
source,” which cites only practical goals such as making software
powerful and reliable, focuses on development models, and avoids
discussion of ethics and freedom. These two viewpoints are different at
the deepest level. For more explanation, see

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html.

Media Contacts

Matt Lee
Campaigns Manager
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942 x24
campaigns@fsf.org

Peter Brown
Executive Director
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942
campaigns@fsf.org

“The main loser has been Microsoft’s highly standardised Windows   Mobile platform. Its smartphone market share has now fallen below   10 percent and the trend is likely to continue as many of its OEM   partners, including HTC, Motorola and Palm, are focusing   investment on other platforms.” <http://www.itwire.com/content/view/27040/127/>

Apparently Circuit City is still alive as an online retailer. They have this Ubuntu computer for sale which is great but if you scroll down you see a “You may qualify for a Windows 7 upgrade!” Now, this is likely a case of someone brainlessly cutting and pasting but it show how retailers know that people don’t want to buy Vista.

Nobody likes Vista.Even American football star, Terrell Owens, is sorry about Windows Vista: it’s not the Operating System he thought it would be.

If you can tell me that you like Vista please respond to the comments. I’d really love to hear from you! Until then, I say “Nobody likes Vista.”

A non-Linux-user friend of mine mentioned that his DVD-encoder software stopped working on his Windows XP computer after last patch Tuesday. A pop-up now shows up in the sys-tray saying that he’s got to “upgrade” to Vista in order for this software to “unlock.” Did this happen to any one else out there? Please let us know in the comments.

He’d rather not upgrade to Vista because he resents Microsoft hijacking his software like this. I told him to try Linux and he said that his next computer will be Linux. Even if he “qualifies” for a Vista “upgrade” or a Windows 7 upgrade, Microsoft has lost a customer.

Microsoft has been fighting free and open source software in court on a patent issues for quite some time. It is no secret that Microsoft had funded SCO’s lawsuits against many major players in the Linux market which Bill Gates used to slow Linux’s growth. Now, nobody cares about SCO anymore? Why? SCO filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in May of 2009. Microsoft used SCO to do ligation five years ago but lately it is has been taking matters into its own hands. First they extorted Novell into “partnering” with them. Now, I personally like Novell products, especially SUSE Linux, therefore I hope Novell stops being a willing victim in Microsoft’s patent warfare. Microsoft has bullied smaller companies too, most notably, Tomtom into settling out of court over patent issues. All three cases, Microsoft was the aggressor where it tried to hinder suing those who wish to be in the business of open source software over patent issues.

This week a small company sued Microsoft under a patent it holds and won. Microsoft was beaten at its own game. A US federal judge ordered Microsoft to stop selling Microsoft Word 2007. Should this stick, for sure this will be the end of Microsoft Office.Growlaw is following it, so we should be able to tell if Americans can buy Microsoft Word two months from now.

And I thought it would die off to technical irrelevance.

In any case, I’m sure there would be a long line of folks at this funeral. Not mourners though. These are people who want to pound another nail in this coffin.

If you are a Microsoft Office user asking yourself “What will we use?” I suggest you download Open Office for Free. It’s not complicated to install or use. With the Open Document support, you will never need to worry if your documents will open when you upgrade versions or share files with your friends. Did I mention that Open Office is Free?

When Nick made the bet with me 2 months ago, he said that he hopes he loses. I am grateful to Nick because he held me accountable for the bold claims that started this blog. Indeed, Microsoft will lose majority market share by June 30, 2011. Nick has been busy moving to Pittsburgh, PA and looking for work. Maybe when he settles in we will hear more from Nick. Tonight, nick shows me two gems. 1. Yet another article which predicts the end is near for Microsoft. 2. Microsoft’s 10K filing, which is an investors report, which names Open Source as a serious competitor. Microsoft is running scared. Open source is the “intense competition.” Bring it on.

In Part 1, I wrote about ways we can get the word out about the software we use every day for our work and hobbies. Today, I’d like to discuss how we can let people know that there is an alternative when buying a new computer. Bug 1’s “symptoms” include only seeing Windows computers in most (non-Apple) computer stores. How do we treat that symptom?

Over two years ago, Dell launched Ideastorm to see what customers wanted. Overwhelmingly, Linux-based systems were requested. Next they asked which Linux distro to use, and voters chose Ubuntu. After selling computers with Ubuntu on them for two full years, Dell has finally gotten around to offering “Ubuntu Linux” as a filter criteria on their main home laptop page. Originally, one had to know to go to dell.com/ubuntu or dell.com/open because there was no way to reach them from the main store. Of course, they still “recommend Windows Vista® Home Premium,” and I still haven’t seen them advertising their Free Software-based offerings anywhere. Likewise, I don’t see any mention of ZaReason or System76 in any big computer magazines, though System76 does seem to have a lot of Google Ads going on for anyone searching for Ubuntu.

We need to let people know about the hardware vendors who sell Linux-preinstalled systems. My personal blog includes a “hardware links” section linking to Dell, ZaReason, and System76 and a badge I made that says “I use ZaReason Ubuntu hardware” is in the sidebar. I remember seeing lots of Emperor Linux ads in magazines, but given their prices and that what they sell are machines that are only sold by the manufacturers with Windows, I get the impression these are simply Windows systems which have been replaced with Linux and are being resold. Since the first sale is the one that counts for “number of machines sold with $OS in 2009,” this seems counterproductive (and expensive) because the companies from which they purchase them count them as Windows sales. That’s also why I advocate against buying a Windows machine and then reinstalling with Linux. Now, I only know of the ones selling Ubuntu because that’s the community I’m immersed in. Who sells machines with Fedora, SUSE, and Mandriva? Lenovo used to sell Thinkpads with SUSE on them (for $89 less than the Windows machines), but they stopped. Sub500 sells Linspire systems. I did find a list of vendors who do not remove Windows and reinstall.

We also need to pressure the others to start selling Linux machines. Dell asked us what we wanted. The others aren’t asking, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be telling. Asus recently dropped their Linux-based EeePC offerings, saying they were unpopular, though James Sparenberg claims local retailers have told him the Linux models outsold the Windows ones. HP and Acer both offer Linux-based netbooks, but if you want a regular 13″, 15″, or 17″ notebook, it’s back to Windows. A If you want a desktop, Windows. If you’re in the market for a new Linux laptop or desktop (or have a friend or family member in need of one), why not give them a call or send a letter asking if you can buy a desktop with Linux on it. Show them there’s demand. Oh, and try finding the Acer Aspire One with Linux on their website. I haven’t come across it yet, though I’ve seen the machine in Microcenter.

OK, how about brick & mortar stores? Unfortunately, when I was in Best Buy the other day, the only HP Minis they had were the Windows ones. I asked the clerk if they had any non-Windows netbooks. He asked if I meant OSX. When I told him “No, Linux,” he said Linux isn’t used in corporate environments. I pointed out that neither are netbooks. We stalemated. He saw me running Kubuntu Netbook Edition (alpha 3) from a flash drive on one of the EeePCs yesterday (hardware testing) and made a comment about the nice thing about Linux being that you can run it off of anything. By the way, you may have heard about 6 months ago that Best Buy was selling boxed copies of Ubuntu that include some weeks of tech support. That is no longer the case. I wonder how much control store managers have over what systems they offer. If any readers ever worked at a big chain like this, please leave a comment. Can we pressure store managers to offer Linux systems, or do we need to go to the corporate headquarters?

I would, additionally, be interested in how guerilla marketing can be brought to stores. Setting up a Fedora Ambassador table just outside the doors might not go so well. They probably own the sidewalk and parking lot. Where your local computer stores are located has a lot to do with the possibilities. In the suburbs, where everyone drives to the computer store and there’s a nice long parking lot between the turn off from the road (public property, where it may be legal in your area to hand things out), it’d be harder. People aren’t likely to get out of the car to take what you’re handing out. I live in a city where most people walk, and Best Buy is located inside a building that also houses Target and Bed Bath & Beyond. I think it more likely that handing things out at the entrance to that building or possibly even inside it would be OK. I see people just outside on the sidewalk raising money for Greenpeace all the time.

If you can’t hand out information about Free Software and Linux-based hardware vendors outside a computer store, find an area with heavy foot-traffic. Maybe the library will let you set something up. Librarians tend to be fans of sharing information. Amber has had luck with getting book stores to let her set out Ubuntu CDs near the Linux books. Maybe you can hand out leaflets or palmcards (¼ sheet of Letter or A4) to folks going into the local high school’s football games, basketball games, cheerleading competitions, etc. The Ubuntu Local Community Team here in Washington, DC celebrates Software Freedom Day at the Takoma Park Folk Festival each September. Find somewhere that lots of people—non-technical ones too—congregate or pass through. Just like in part 1, we want to look at non-technical people. The techies have already heard of Linux. They know it exists. They may have tried it. Now we need to tell the people who haven’t heard of it.

My mom’s pretty good about this, actually. A month after I switched her desktop to Ubuntu, I overheard her telling her friend (whose computer is really old and slow; I think WinME?) about “this Linux thing” I put on her computer that makes it faster, easier, and *gasp* you don’t even need to worry about viruses! I think getting the non-technical folks you know who use Linux to tell their friends is a good thing. It avoids the “yeah, right, you can use it, but that’s only because you’re a geek” reaction nicely.

What else can we do to:

1. Convince OEMs to preinstall Linux on netbooks, laptops, and desktops
2. Convince stores to sell those Linux-based machines
3. Tell people where to find those systems

Leave suggestions in the comments!

New users have a lot of potential. They are potential developers, potential advocates, potential documentation writers, potential artwork contributors, potential testers, and potential support providers. We want to harness that potential. We can’t harness it if they get scared off two days into their Linux transition!

If we want our community to grow, we need to embrace and encourage everyone who joins it. If we want our developer community to grow, we need to recognize that the person asking today “how do I get my mp3 player working?” may in a year be contributing patches. Those were a year apart for me. But that becomes less likely to happen if you answer “RTFM n00b!” when they ask that question. They’re likely to think “you know what? These Linux people are jerks. Screw them. I’m going back to Windows. At least I know how to use it.” Is that what you want? Alright, fine, I know there are some of you out there who think they should do just that. Keep Linux all for you elitists who think you know more than everyone and are the only ones with the right to use it. Well that’s bull. Free Software is for everyone. Your attitude is just as restrictive as a proprietary license because it prevents people from using the software the GPL has made free for them.

You all know Bethlynn, who started this blog? Linux sysadmin for over 10 years. She was told in #fedora to “go back to Ubuntu” because Fedora 11 would be too hard for her. Yeah, right. That’s the thing to tell someone you think is a new user: go away, you’re not good enough. And then they wonder why she was offended. Please, does it really require explanation? And yesterday I saw folks in #suse taunting a new user for using the pidgin-facebookchat plugin, saying they must have no real friends if they uses Facebook, then calling them a child for using /ignore. What? This is not how you retain new users! When called out on being jerks, they only said “I am *so* sorry for showing everyone that Internet is not the lovey-dovey place you had hoped for (because it is not, period).” What’s wrong with wanting people in a support channel to be, well, supportive?

I honestly think anyone that can use Ubuntu can use Fedora or OpenSUSE just as easily. So then, why does Ubuntu’s community grow so much faster? I’m starting to think it has to do with the Ubuntu Code of Conduct. The way that user was treated would not be tolerated in #ubuntu, #kubuntu, or any other channels governed by Ubuntu’s IRC Council (except maybe #ubuntu-offtopic, in which case it’d be friendly jests, not taunting someone asking for support). We try to be welcoming to everyone regardless of experience level. For some reason, other communities seem to fight tooth and nail against instituting a Code of Conduct. Why? Some claim it’d be censorship. To that, I’d like to quote Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso:

It is an unfortunate situation that often people when they’re told, “hey, would you please be polite?” they respond with “NO, BECAUSE THAT INFRINGES UPON MY HUMAN RIGHT TO BE AN ASSHOLE!”

I assume the others arguing against a Code of Conduct see no problem with the current situation and are perfectly content to maintain the status quo. The status quo isn’t good enough, people. If you find that there are those in your community who would rather waste time being non-constructive jerks scaring away new users than use even less time giving an answer, call them on it and apologize to the newbie. Do we really want a reputation as a bunch of elitist jerks?

I was talking to Amber after the #suse incident. She’s had a run-in with #fedora before, getting an “RTFM” type response to a question. She told Karsten Wade from Fedora about it at OSCON, and he said Ubuntu has actually helped distros like Fedora because it gets people who would never have tried Linux otherwise up to speed and feeling confident enough to try other distros. Makes sense to me. Amber is also quick to point out that the Fedora Ambassadors are nothing like the people she and Bethlynn encountered on IRC. At both SELF and OSCON, the Fedora Ambassadors were helpful and encouraging. They were talking about how the communities need to work together and stop ridiculing each other and putting users down for their choice in distro.

We need some inter-community collaboration. Can we get everyone, regardless of distro or desktop environment, to agree that new users are a good thing and that we should be encouraging them? Can we get people to do that online, when it’s so much easier than in person to be a jerk without the pesky conscience getting in the way? It’s necessary in order to grow the greater Free Software user community.

The Linux Dairy Council is the idea of Zonker of the Open SUSE project. Anyone who is interested in being a part of solving the problem of how will Linux compete with the marketing giant of Microsoft is welcome at the Linux Dairy Council. Zonker challenged the audience during his keynote at South East LinuxFest to become the media. This blog is marketing contribution. The Ohio LinuxFest is well.

I am going to the Ohio LinuxFest

In my opinion, our biggest problem right now is marketing. There are three categories of people we really need to reach out to:

1. Those who last tried a Linux distro more than 5 or 10 years ago
2. Those who’ve been told “only hackers can use it”
3. Those who’ve never heard of it

The first group tend to go on about how absolutely impossible it’d be for normal people to use. They sort of cause the second group. To the first, I say: Slackware is not the be-all and end-all of Linux anymore. Try one of the distros aimed at being usable for non-geeks, and you will be surprised. To the second I say: that’s just an old rumour. The current versions are easy to use, and the software will be familiar. Come on, my little brother uses Ubuntu on his laptop at school, happy that he doesn’t have to worry about viruses. My mom uses it at home, glad to have something easier to use than that confusing Windows thing that was always so slow. My friend Cathy’s two year old daughter installed Ubuntu with a little help (she can’t read yet). And I’m not saying “yay Ubuntu, boo $other_distro” because, well, Fedora’s easy to use too. OpenSUSE’s KDE4 is very well done.

But let’s look at the third group. How do they find out about it? I was talking to Bethlynn on the phone last night and mentioned that I really think it’d be nice if a bunch of people got together and each pitched in, say, $5 to take out a full-page color ad in something like PC Magazine, advertising Free Software. She said it reminded her of the National Dairy Council and their ads. But then, well, don’t most people who read computer magazines fall into either group 1 or group 2? Called my friend Joe later, and we talked about non-tech magazines. You know, I bet GRAMPS was never featured in a genealogy magazine, even though the beautiful charts it outputs are the reason a professional genealogist I know decided to take another look at Linux. How about Inkscape? Ever see it mentioned as a great alternative to Adobe Illustrator for those on a tight budget in any graphics magazines? There’s a lot of Free Software out there that’s very good, and writing a software review for a major magazine is likely to put a bit of money in your pocket–as opposed to ads, where you have to pay.

That got me thinking. Do you write articles for your blog, someone else’s blog, an online zine, or a Linux-related magazine? Ever write ones that are “how to do $foo with free software” where $foo is part of some niche interest like genealogy or cross stitch? Wouldn’t the wider community around that interest be interested in software to help them out that they don’t have to pay an arm and a leg for? I think they would. So let’s try submitting articles to magazines focused around those topics instead of restricting ourselves to Linux and Free Software magazines. OK, so those are some good ideas about getting Free Software projects onto people’s radars. But what about when you spread out and want to promote not just usin Inkscape on Windows, but using Fedora, OpenSUSE, or Kubuntu? Then you get a little bit stuck. Writing an article about an OS for anything other than a computer magazine isn’t going to go over so well.

Come back for Part 2.