Will free software/free content ever become the norm?

[CSMatt]

Given the outstanding progress that FOSS is making in recent years, I have to wonder; will it ever become common to find more end users using free software than proprietary software in the majority or markets, or will proprietary software always remain dominant? I'm of course talking about in the long run, 10-40 years or so. I think it's pretty obvious who is dominating the market today.

Likewise, will we ever see a situation in which the majority of new content is released under a free content license, or will it always be the case where the popular stuff is released under full copyright?

[50words]

I think a major obstacle to this is that free software is currently developed by people who are building the software primarily for themselves. Thus, the software is targeted at their own needs and wants.

To become mainstream, those developers will have to be motivated to create software for "average users." Average users don't necessarily want the nuts-and-bolts, change-everything-if-you-want-to software that it seems like developers prefer. They want easy to use software that "just works" with good defaults (ala Apple's offerings). What would motivate those developers to build software for the average user except for the promise of profit, since they will (presumably) no longer be building the software they want to use themselves?

This is based on the premise that average users and developers want different things out of their software. But I think that is self evidence. For an obvious example, average users do not want a command-line interface, but the CLI is defended to the death on these forums. And with good reason, if you are a developer or advanced user. We can defend the CLI all we want, but in the end, it isn't what average users want, and we are not going to change that.

So I don't know the answer, but I do know that the current motivations don't seem to support free software becoming the norm for the average joe computer user. Something will have to change, whether it is profit or something else.

[KiwiNZ]

Unlikely and not desirable .

[happysmileman]

Most people I know use mostly Open source stuff, mainly because if they say "I'm looking for a program that does X", I reccommend an Open-Source program that does it, and 90% of the time they like it and stick with it

[az]

Given the outstanding progress that FOSS is making in recent years, I have to wonder; will it ever become common to find more end users using free software than proprietary software in the majority or markets, or will proprietary software always remain dominant?

I think it's only a matter of time before this happens. The proprietary software industry is more about lawyers than developers, these days.

FLOSS has idealistic roots, but it does have a pragmatic side. Both the user and developer have solid reasons for using FLOSS over proprietary software.

Ask a user why they should buy the cow if they can get the milk for free? Add to that the almost complete lack of vendor lock-in, and a solid foundation of safety that comes with open code.

As for the developer, there are a lot of parallels between software and music because they are both considered "intellectual property" (whatever that can mean) and in today's world, the creator and the owner of creative works are not the same person. Well, not in the case of creative works that can sell a lot of copies.

Musicians have been frustrated about the music industry for generations. How many bands can you think of that have been accused of "selling out"? Why do they do this? Because the distribution of music is the industry. And the distribution method is obsolete - twelve-year-olds do a better job at distributing music using the internet that music stores - but the legal system has not noticed that yet.

In the case of software, the internet is the perfect medium by which to distribute software. And software freedom is the best way to do that.

The way for the industry to catch up to that is for software to become a service rather than a product. Again, when users are given a choice between buying a product and buying a service, they will pick the one that does the best job for the least money - and the only option that can provide that for any length of time is the latter.



I'm of course talking about in the long run, 10-40 years or so. I think it's pretty obvious who is dominating the market today.


The proprietary software industry has a lot less longer to live than that. In the end, it's proprietary software that will wind up being the "fringe"; reserved for only a few corner cases.



Likewise, will we ever see a situation in which the majority of new content is released under a free content license, or will it always be the case where the popular stuff is released under full copyright?

The GPL is a copyright license. I suppose what you mean to say is "all rights reserved"?

[KiwiNZ]

I think it's only a matter of time before this happens. The proprietary software industry is more about lawyers than developers, these days.....



Hmmm I dont think so . there is too much invested in the industry.

Also it not desirable , choice means proprietary as well as FOSS.... Yes ?

What is desirable is for the both to coexist coorperatively.