Friday, June 22. 2007
Amarok 2 on windows - A rant
Ever since it was first announced that Amarok 2.0 would be available for windows, there have been mixed reactions. Most responses have been quite enthusiastic, but some seem to think that releasing Amarok for windows will give people one less reason to switch to GNU/Linux or other FOSS operating systems.
When the announcement of the new Amarok 1.4.6 release was posted to digg.com this argument reared its head again and I decided I would write a post about why I think that releasing Amarok (or any other free software program) for Windows is actually a good idea, if your goal is to attract people to alternatives. (disclaimer: I am reusing a comment I wrote on digg last night)
While it might be true that a few people would be willing to switch operation system based on a single killer app, I find it far more plausible that people switch if they can have the same tried and true programs as they are used to available on the new platform. What most non technical people are actually using is not an operating system, but rather a collection of applications. This makes it difficult to even explain why they should care about switching, just to have to relearn a heap of new applications. By getting as much free software as possible running on top of Windows, we are in effect making Windows less and less important, to the point where, from the non technical users point of view, the only difference is if you want the expensive Dell with windows, or the cheaper, but otherwise identical one with Linux.
Take my girlfriend for instance, she is (still) running windows, but the main apps she uses are firefox, openoffice, gaim and inkscape. As these are all available on GNU/Linux and other free platforms as well, her migration can be relatively painless once the last few games she plays run on Wine.
Also, for the argument of the "killer app only available on linux" to have any effect, the Windows user would still have to somehow be exposed to Amarok, and for most, this will never happen. (They are not all lucky enough to have a friendly Gearhead to show them the way)
Finally, I would not call what we are doing at the moment porting to windows, it more a case of getting it for (almost) free since QT4 and kdelibs4 have all been ported to windows already. It would most likely take a lot of effort to keep someone else from porting it to windows if we do not, and this kind of artificial scarcity is not what free software is about.
Cheers
- Nikolaj
When the announcement of the new Amarok 1.4.6 release was posted to digg.com this argument reared its head again and I decided I would write a post about why I think that releasing Amarok (or any other free software program) for Windows is actually a good idea, if your goal is to attract people to alternatives. (disclaimer: I am reusing a comment I wrote on digg last night)
While it might be true that a few people would be willing to switch operation system based on a single killer app, I find it far more plausible that people switch if they can have the same tried and true programs as they are used to available on the new platform. What most non technical people are actually using is not an operating system, but rather a collection of applications. This makes it difficult to even explain why they should care about switching, just to have to relearn a heap of new applications. By getting as much free software as possible running on top of Windows, we are in effect making Windows less and less important, to the point where, from the non technical users point of view, the only difference is if you want the expensive Dell with windows, or the cheaper, but otherwise identical one with Linux.
Take my girlfriend for instance, she is (still) running windows, but the main apps she uses are firefox, openoffice, gaim and inkscape. As these are all available on GNU/Linux and other free platforms as well, her migration can be relatively painless once the last few games she plays run on Wine.
Also, for the argument of the "killer app only available on linux" to have any effect, the Windows user would still have to somehow be exposed to Amarok, and for most, this will never happen. (They are not all lucky enough to have a friendly Gearhead to show them the way)
Finally, I would not call what we are doing at the moment porting to windows, it more a case of getting it for (almost) free since QT4 and kdelibs4 have all been ported to windows already. It would most likely take a lot of effort to keep someone else from porting it to windows if we do not, and this kind of artificial scarcity is not what free software is about.
Cheers
- Nikolaj
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