On Linux

It's been a while since I've posted. My thinking was to post an update every time I finished something cool, but by the time I get to a point where I want to stop, it's 3AM and I have to be up for work by 7. Hopefully I will at least make one update a week.

So I was thinking about Linux lately. Mostly because of the post by the blogger at Red Hat sounding the alarm about potential vendor lock in with UEFI secure boot. Microsoft then offered an explanation and a rebuttal regarding it, then said blogger went off the deep end in part two of his post saying that Microsoft can't be trusted, and all the other silly rhetoric we've been hearing from those who have taken an unhealthy interest in free software.

That got me thinking about Linux in more general terms, about the different distributions, the community, etc. And there seems to be a contradiction. The community wants Linux everywhere, but they don't really want it simple enough for the average user to use it.

A favorite phrase of mine is: 20XX is the year of Linux on the Desktop. My response to that is, not until it can play MP3s, Mpeg 4 video, Flash. Not until it comes bundled with restricted drivers, and definitely not until you can operate the system completely without having to touch the command line. In short, there's going to have to be a commercial distribution.

My guess is in the next 5 years or so, there will be a commercial spin of Ubuntu, that will either come on you PC, or you can buy from their site online. If it doesn't require an activation system, it will at-least require you to sign on with your Ubuntu one account. (This is all just rampant speculation though)

Some of you reading this are probably cringing right now. Charging for free software? That's against our philosophy!

The problem is that you can have universal adaptation, or you can have a completely free environment (cost and liberty), but you can't have both.

Eventually, there will be good free codecs for media, there will be good free drivers, and there will be a good desktop, but who will encode with them? Who is going to convert their massive libraries of music or videos to free formats?

Linux is winning in the mobile realm because Google's Android has made these concessions. You can watch Netflix, you can play flash, you can listen to your MP3s, you can even make phone calls. But it's because they compromised on non-free software.

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So, I guess, if you are a Linux supporter, do you support broader adaptation or do you support freedom of choice? At this moment, it's really hard to have both.

Little update - rewrote chin music in C

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2126236/formatted_contort_c.html

A rewrite of chin music in straight C. A lot nicer looking than the C# version in some ways, a lot more portable too. One file, the executable is only 14 KB!