How To Live Free - Part 1 0f 5: Professor’s view
You are only reading this to see if I have any secrets that you don’t already know. I don’t, and you are too old to believe that anything in this world is free. The object of open source is something I believe in and it isn’t’ because it is free. It makes me a part of a community that wants to advance technology and not put money in the pockets of business men who can care less about technology. Ever wonder why Microsoft is so powerful? Because it pays money to engineers to stay ahead of those who work together to provide open source solutions for free.
I don’t mind paying for open source. I would rather pay a small license fee that pays for the effort that hundreds of engineers put into developing creative thinking and not to put people on top of the billionaire list that takes the ideas of open source and expose it. I am not against Microsoft, I am against those who are addicted to Microsoft. Corporate reliance on Microsoft is what I call “corporate ignorance”.
Now I am a hypocrite, I admit it. In fact, I am using a laptop running Microsoft XP Professional. This is the result of corporate ignorance. There are no choices given serious consideration. If a business purchases a computer, by default it is a windows operating system. In fact, most of those making purchasing decisions are not aware of the other choices. A CIO, a CTO, or even a CSO aren’t even aware of the benefits. These are the gentlemen put into the position to mold technology.
The fact of the matter is that none of these gentlemen remember the early 90’s. None of them remember the growing pains of Window’s 3.1. Sure we all remember how happy were were to have solitaire at work. But do we remember how difficult it was to configure a printer or to peer with other computers in the office. The blue screen of death every time the network got congested. It was during that time that Microsoft improved. The patience of consumers were because they were spoiled. Being able to create and edit documents and not have to use a typewriter. And during this time serve as Microsoft’s free Quality Assurance engineers. Reporting problems and ignoring the growing pains. You, the user, made Microsoft. We are the reason we pay $399 for a licensed copy of Microsoft. We are the reason we have to deal with crappy expensive Microsoft support.
We need to change this. Microsoft is not the only target. There are the Verizon’s, the Sprints, the Novell’s, the Sun Microsystems, the Cable providers, and last but not least Apple. You think because Apple has 7% of the market that I should forget them? Look at the price tag on the proprietary systems that Apple produce. Sure I like the Iphones and the IPODS, and Itunes, but come on. I am forced to utilize their products because there is no real competition.
What power do you have? You are the consumer. Do you know if the Linux community grew to 25%, Microsoft would have no choice, but to be competitively priced. That is still not my goal. My goal is to see my kids, your kids, and the kids of every blue collar worker have a computer that didn’t cost a mortgage payment. To construct a document that could be opened on a free software package and not a $600 version of Microsoft Office. (See Open Office). That is the closest thing to free that I can think of. And you need to join me in the fight.
Voice over IP is the wave of the future. It has been existent since the late 90’s, but held up by the telecommunications companies because it marks the end of their dominance. VOIP to VOIP calls will always be free. VOIP to PSTN comes at a cost. The goal is to make toll charges obsolete. Ten years ago unlimited long distance calls for $20 bucks a month was impossible. Now it is a reality.
Ever use a flavor of Linux? 5 years ago it took rocket science to get working. And after you get it to work you play around for hours for it to play nicely with Microsoft. With the Dell deal, Ubunto will make Linux the easiest kid to play with in the playground.
Be a hobbyist, be curious, play a role and advance technology. Take the ride with the Professor!