[svlug] Fedora or Ubuntu for novis

[Don Marti]

begin Alan DuBoff quotation of Fri, Sep 12, 2008 at 11:29:05AM -0700:

> Open source doesn't belong under a Corporation. This just proves it even 
> more. In some ways Corporate dictates additional restrictions upon us, as 
> users. Well, one can argue that Corporate America dictates to us, so that 
> we can be blessed with their ability to make a profit, but have their 
> comfy blanket to protect them in a corporate world.

That's why the PC business model will never die,
much as some of the ditherati want everyone to be on
Network Computers that are sold, serviced, and billed
like mobile phones.  Imagine if Dell could be sued for
all the patent-infringing things that people do with
the PC software they buy off the shelf or download
from an independent site.

Maybe what we need is more entertainment devices
sold without software, or with a minimal load.
Imagine a CD player that, out of the box, is just a CD
player/clock radio.  But install the right open source
firmware from the net, and it's a net radio/ripping
station/FM time-shifter/web-controlled jukebox.

-- 
Don Marti                                               +1 510-814-0932
http://zgp.org/~dmarti/
dmarti at zgp.org         Linux device driver unconference: http://freedomhec.org/