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Re: [ox-en] Gartner: Windows collapsing under its own weight



Stefan I cant help but making a remark on this. 

"I remember that years ago I stated that the technical quality of Free
Software is higher than of proprietary software and that this is the real
reason why Free Software is on the rise - not license costs or so. People
then did not understand what I meant. I think this report is a clear proof
of what I meant then."

At the same moment, you are cursing at the installation difficulties of
Pentabarf ;-)....Frankly, I totally understand what you mean but yet I do
not like oversimplification. There are commercial products of excellent
quality out there and there is free software thats like shit to use.
Ideally, free software can be designed with total consideration of use
value and the system of needs in mind. Herbert Hrachovec has put it very
well in his speech at the Third Oekonux Conference, when he said that a
criteria of free technology is that it can be "left". He played on the
allusion of the two meanings of the german word "verlassen", "to leave"
and "to rely on". Which means that truly well-designed technology is one
that has not to "bind you" by creating more and more artificial needs
("customer retention" as a marketing buzzword).

So yes, ideally what you write is the case. But given the many factors
that plague free software development, like lack of quality control an
ratings by outside perspectives, lack of self-criticism and so on its a
possibility, not a reality. Sometimes the confusion of these two
perspectives make the person who issues these statements look like an old
party functionary in real-existing socialism claiming things that simply
are not true.

franz

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Web-Site: http://www.oekonux.org/
Organization: http://www.oekonux.de/projekt/
Contact: projekt oekonux.de



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