Re: [Fsuk-manchester] "Selling" Free software to the masses

[Iain Roberts]

Having spent a good chunk of the last few year promoting free & open source, 
and working with other doing the same, I'm afraid I'm not too optimistic about 
the ability of the four freedoms and the philsophy behind free software to 
appeal to a wider audience. 

Remember - GNU/Linux has been around for over 20 years now and every year since 
about 2002 has been "the year of the Linux desktop", but the Linux market share 
remain stubbornly tiny, depite the efforts of tens of thousands of enthusiasts. 
 Compare and contrast with the success of the proprietary iPhone and its 
200,000 tightly controlled apps.

The 4 freedoms mean little to modern, non-technical users.  They don't want to 
know how the software works, or change it.  If they want to share any software 
with someone else, they'll give them the URL or torrent to download it.  And, 
in practise, they can normally do what they want with proprietary software.

Mark make an interesting point about DRM and other restrictions.  To some 
extent that's true but - in practise - most people find the opposite: there are 
far more things that they want to do but can't in *free* software because it 
doesn't have the functionality. 

I defy anyone who's used the latest versions of MS Office to seriously claim 
that OpenOffice.org is as good (though it may be good enough for their needs, 
as it is for mine).  Likewise, free software for editing movies and doing DTP 
is clearly and often painfully inferior to the better proprietary alternatives.

And isn't so much of this software running on our PCs so old-fashioned anyway, 
when so many apps are web based (and free as in beer)?

To promote free software, I would concentrate on the free apps that genuinely 
offer something either better than the proprietary alternatives (e.g. Firefox) 
or that you couldn't legally improve without paying a significant amount of 
money (e.g. Gimp, Inkscape).  Ubuntu's also worth a punt.

They're (relatively) widely used, look good, have lots of handy plug-ins, big 
user support communities and do the job well enough for most people's needs.  
And, of course, they can be legally obtained free of charge.

Iain


Iain Roberts
Axiom Tech
p: 0845 127 0310   m: 07958 570202  w: www.axiomtech.co.uk

Axiom Tech Ltd is registered in England and Wales at 92 Didsbury Road, 
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----- "Lucy" <address@hidden> wrote:

> 2009/12/28 Simon Ward <address@hidden>:
> > On Mon, Dec 28, 2009 at 12:43:24AM +0000, Luke Taylor wrote:
> >> I am putting together some literature to give out to the students
> at
> >> Manchester University promoting free software (and free culture).
> I
> >> have looked around and haven't found any good resources for
> "selling"
> >> free software to non-geeks. Does anybody have any good ideas or
> points
> >> to make to enthuse somebody who may not even know what source code
> is?
> >> The finer points in the GPL versus BSD debate may need to be
> dropped
> >> for example and probably the whole four freedoms thing.
> >
> > The four freedoms are vital, they define what free software is.
>  You
> > don’t have to explain it as “the four freedoms” and recite them word
> for
> > word, but you will need to mention them all or the whole point of
> free
> > software is lost.
> 
> How about writing a simplified, non-technical version of the four
> freedoms.. something like:
> 
> With Free software:
> 1. You are free to use the software however and where ever you like.
> 2.  You are able to share it with your friends, and everyone else.
> 3. You are allowed (even encouraged) to understand how it works.
> 4. You can make changes to the software and share those changes with
> others.
> 
> 
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