Individuals for FOSS
Interesting thought I got via email today:
Open Source will happen with or without us I believe. The production model is already taking over. Red Hat is now the backbone of the NYSE that is a barometer.
Yes Red Hat is looking after the NYSE and did release record revenues, they’re doing quite well with business up 19% this time. So this part is obvious to me:
I have no doubt that FOSS will take over software production, it’s just an economically more successful model of production. I repeat that this is an industrial revolution, but too few want to believe that we might actually be living in such an exciting time as that.
But the question on my mind is whether individuals, home users and small businesses will be in on this ride of freedom or whether they will be left behind by a corporate culture that only want to take money from OEMS, large enterprises and other easy sources of revenue.
Not only is it apparently impossible to make money from individuals, but it’s equally impossible to listen to them. A set of enigmas which are most certainly of the same knot and I’m looking forward to picking over the problem in the future.
Perhaps we’re just waiting for the big success, but I don’t hear FOSS being praised in the media or seized upon in OEM advertisements as loud as the production line was back in that revolution (I’m looking at you Android). It’s disappointing to me that there are still so many people even in our Ubuntu community that continue to explain that “home users don’t care how it was made”.
It’s disappointing because it’s wrong, it’s wrong to think that people are only consumers. It’s also wrong because it’s that same culture of ignorance of where our wealthy possessions come from that has driven the wrongs that laid a path to child labour and environmental problems. We’ve only begun to start fixing some of these problems and yet still a culture of “ignorance is good and normal” keeps FOSS down, that perhaps it’s something worthy for just the self-chosen few.
I do not subscribe to that notion and I will gladly tell every person, even my dear ol’ mum and granny what it’s about, reforming the words I use and the imagery I employ to help make it even easier to communicate. The market isn’t just about business it’s also about perceptions, only when individuals understand FOSS will the market solidify around the best of what we have and not the worst of what open source is according to a few bad Apples.
My thoughts are obviously long and ranty, but I’d still like to hear your thoughts?
Interesting article, whether you are right or ‘weather’ you are wrong, debates to be seen….
People don’t care how their products are made, they’re just consumers.
Only a small portion bother to purchase fair trade chocolate or avoid Nike shoes because they’re made by little slave children. And half the time these people are being “green” or “organic” because they want to look cool, not because they genuinely care how their shit is made.
FOSS doesn’t command profit like proprietary software; therefore, FOSS doesn’t have advertising efforts from companies like M$. So its impossible with the current model of Corporation and Consumer for FOSS to ever become widely used in the USA.
Now as more people lose their jobs as the economy continues to tumble, maybe people will start to look for ways to save money. But this might take 20 or so years before the USA economy gets to this condition (50% or higher REAL unemployment). And even if this condition arises, will people just resort to downloading M$ from bittorrent (free) or will they try and learn about FOSS?
The advertising of M$ will still be there so probably they will use bittorrent.
Which is why the USA Government just started their war on piracy. They will now have a reason to imprison all of those unemployed people using bt. Nice.
FOSS will continue to be a niche until our society changes from consumerism to something else (hopefully better). Until then, expect the masses to buy whatever their TV tells them to spend their fake money on.
Excellent post Martin and exactly right! Let’s keep up the good fight
Cheers,
Randall
Benjamin: How clinical you are about people. They’re not that unthinking, most of them try to do their best, they try to prioritise their lives as best they can. That’s what makes FOSS “common sense” as opposed to a “hard choice”.
Using Ubuntu isn’t a difficultly for most people, setting it up isn’t even that hard for the majority.
The vast majority of people, even people who aren’t on our political spectrum, I believe are trying to be good people. Sure they make excuses for their bad behaviour, but they know it’s wrong and it’s why sad faces on speed reminders work so well.
Hello Mo i want to ask you what you mean it is impossible to make money from individuals , do you mean like individual or as a software dev from individuals?
As for the problem with listening i also think it is a problem of culture and system . I don`t think there should be a entity that listens to individuals but we all should listen to others , the entity should just provide the infrastructure for that . When you want to tackle this problem i have a vision that i think might work but since i don`t know to code yet i can`t get it materialized .
Now to the problem with the child labor i don`t know how the work is done there , if the children are treated all right then i guess it is better they work in a factory then dying without food if that factory wasn`t there . The question is are they getting payed enough? and this question should be asked by mature people also , am i getting payed a fair wage , or i`m just getting payed enough to shut up?
The payed enough to shut up is the current way of corporations , they are paying a little more the ideas and less the work that goes in to a product . For FOSS i think we should live this behind and start paying the work and not ideas … ideas are worthless without the work , they can live in your head but never in life if there isn`t anyone to make it real .
I know this sounds communist and yes it is because for me communism isn`t about control and one party and all the shit … those were side effects of the war between the Reds and the Whites that the communists failed to overcome and so they failed to grant freedom after the danger was gone , and consequently they failed as a hole because not everybody will ever agree on anything. For me communism means that ideas are worth nothing without the labor that makes them possible so we should stop paying the ideas and if someone can recreate what you made he is free to do it . (no copyright).
Benjamin: Of course people don`t care how their products are made because people aren`t asked , and more we as a culture are driven by wealth so it is almost impossible to brake this so a nike shoe is better than a unknown brand and also i can`t find a better use of an armany or other expensive brand than impressing stupid people now the question is : Is FOSS going to try to change this culture or is it going to try to fit in?
Dear Martin,
I am with you here, but I believe is a matter of ignorance that can only be fixed through education. And unfortunately there are process that take longer time than others.
I believe that FLOSS is not but an expression of the human search for freedom and knowledge. One of the affluents of that big river called enlightenment. And there is no technique your can employ to reach it, but learn from your peers and find, through logic and intuition, the path that guides and liberates your spirit for whatever oppression you are perceiving (it’s all about the perception of freedom
R.