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View Full Version : Do people you know make comments about free open source software?



LinuxFox
July 5th, 2009, 09:51 PM
Not to offend anyone, but when someone like a friend or a visitor sees you using a piece of free open source software, do they make any comments?

Weeks ago I was playing Freedoom, the free software Doom-based game, and one of my brother's friends asked if it was Doom. When I said it was a free game based on the Doom engine, he looked at it and called it a rip-off, even though I explained it was a free project by a community of Doom fans.

Has something like this ever happened to you? I'd post this in gaming, but I thought I'd put it here since it could be any piece of free open source software.

nitehawk777
July 5th, 2009, 11:00 PM
Oh,..If you use Linux (or one of the BSDs)..you'll hear something like that sooner-or-later! For example,..my brother (a now retired Electronics Technician/Engineer)...is a "MicroSoft-Only" man. He thinks Linux is just handmade "hobby" stuff,..and nowhere NEAR as good as M$ stuff. So it's probably "normal" for folks to assume anything FOSS or free is just "rip-offs" (etc. etc.)....(sigh)

monsterstack
July 5th, 2009, 11:10 PM
Most people I know go all comatose when I talk about computer-related things of any sort, so generally I don't. Although my uncle was intrigued when he heard my step-father and me chatting about my Ubuntu server. He asked me about Ubuntu and then free software and then the whole thing. I don't like preaching. It felt weird just explaining it. I kept thinking he was suddenly going to fall asleep with boredom but he was actually genuinely interested. We had a pretty enormous discussion about it. He told me he thought such things as "incredible" (his word to describe the free software philosophy) as Linux should have more exposure. I agreed with him. I guess I'd become so used to seeing folk online yabber on about "real users don't care about freedom!!!" that I was unprepared to see someone give a favourable view on it.

t0p
July 5th, 2009, 11:19 PM
Big problem is, a lot of people hear the word "free" and immediately think "It must be crap if it doesn't cost $99.99" or however much it costs to get Vista. And if you tell 'em: "Not free as in beer", they look at you like you're simple and ask "What free beer?"

LinuxFox
July 5th, 2009, 11:45 PM
So it's probably "normal" for folks to assume anything FOSS or free is just "rip-offs" (etc. etc.)....(sigh)That's a bummer, if they only tried free and open source software, then they might see it's more than that. I even exercised the freedom and gave my neighbor Open Office for Windows. She was amazed with it and uses it.

monsterstack, that's actually a nice surprise your Uncle was interested.

I agree t0p, when most people hear "free", they instantly think price. I used the term "open source" with my mother, and she says "free" meaning price instead of freedom.

monsterstack
July 5th, 2009, 11:57 PM
monsterstack, that's actually a nice surprise your Uncle was interested.
Aye, 'Twas pretty neat.


I agree t0p, when most people hear "free", they instantly think price. I used the term "open source" with my mother, and she says "free" meaning price instead of freedom.

In my opinion, the biggest menace is the number of horrible, ugly, buggy trialware apps you find when searching for "free" software for Windows. People immediately see these applications as garbage. I wish that libre was a common, well-known word in English. Hell, Americans can change the spelling to liber if they wish. Open source doesn't convey the "freedom" part of free software at all (which is partly the reason it was coined as a term, actually).

swoll1980
July 6th, 2009, 12:07 AM
Most people I know go all comatose when I talk about computer-related things of any sort

Story of my life. I'm still amazed at the number of people, who find anything computer related, completely mind-numbing. Unless, of course, it's about so, and so's MySpace page.

Arup
July 6th, 2009, 02:05 AM
Ny nephews and neices come to my house, see my nice compiz enabled flashy desktop, play around with Linux and all of them demand it, same goes for most of my friends so when their birthday comes, I give all of them a usb stick with Ubuntu on it. So far all of them have installed it and are running it either in dual boot or as a stand alone OS only.

Jackelope
July 6th, 2009, 02:23 AM
A while back I was running the brand new Kubuntu with KDE 4.0. An acquaintance was excited to see my computer and asked if it was Vista (I guess he had always used XP and didn't know what Vista looked like). Anyway, when I told him it was Linux, he immediately said "ohhh...THAT" and mocked it. What's so odd is that he has been quite impressed by the look of it when he thought it was MS, and just because it was Linux his whole attitude changed. That's the mark of a closed-minded individual, IMHO.

stwschool
July 6th, 2009, 02:41 AM
Arup: Yeah I've had that experience. I get kids asking me what's on my laptop all the time at school, and being the lovely friendly teacher I am, when they ask if they can have it for their computer, I let them have a lovely shiny disk of goodness :)

jflaker
July 6th, 2009, 02:48 AM
A closed mind is like a brick wall....

I have offered Ubuntu to several people and only 2 have actually used it.....One used the live CD to extract data from a non-bootable windows box then gave me the disk back........He said he had tried it a few times, but had some software that wouldn't run on it, which is understandable.