On 3/13/07, Sandip Bhattacharya sandip@lug-delhi.org wrote:
cvr3@river-valley.org wrote:
When Linux business solution providers go to Govt. organisations they are confronted with the bleak scenario of all the systems being under M$. Since their solutions are "standalone" and built with Linux
libraries
such as GTK, QT etc. they need invariably Linux OS. Since the organisations are reluctant to change their existing M$ platform just to accommodate their solutions (even though they liked it) they are loosing that business. What I am asking is that under these circumstances is it ethically and morally correct for them to create M$ binaries of their solution using windows versions of GTK and QT libraries and install them on the M$ platform, and there by getting the business order.
These libraries are Free on Windows and Linux, and therefore legally usable *as long as* any GPL libraries statically linked are under GPL and include source.
In term of ethics/morality, I personally believe using FOSS software on Windows is a win by itself, because it opens the mind of users by showing them a world where software can be free. We just have to make sure that people don't mistake Free software with freeware. I have to spend considerable energy on that right now. :)
Right now, if you buy a new computer/laptop, you will definitely have windows on it already. But with FOSS software, an average user doesn't need to get any additional proprietary software to get day-to-day work done.
You have 7-zip,Clamwin, Openoffice, gimp, inkscape, mysql/postgresql,gaim,filezilla etc. which more mostly satisfies all the needs of the user.
This by itself is a big win from my POV. Once users start talking about it with friends and get comfortable using it, they won't notice the difference when one day they try out a linux workstation.
The pain of migrating users from windows to Linux has always been about changing how users do day-to-day tasks, and this is a great way to cross the bridge.
Really loved the line. If you are ready to change a little bit then you can easily migrate to linux. For a newbei to the computer world :M$ or Linux hardly matters.
Sujith Haridasan
- Sandip
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