this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2024
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I've argued this for point for so many years and have become exhausted to the point where I don't even bother any more.
Free software advocates, God bless them, are fighting a good fight but we will never see the average computer user giving up functionality for the sake of some computing ideology; whether that ideology be free software, privacy or security focused. I'm glad some people are willing to do so as I believe strongly that the world would not be where it is today if it weren't for it's existence offer the last two or three decades. But the reality is that 90% of the world views computers, phones and tablets as tools; a means to achieving an end, not the end in and of itself. There may be some subset of people who are willing to give up some convenience or utility if they believe strongly enough in one of these ideologies, but most of them will never care about the license of their software as long as it gets the job done. But this is precisely why we need people who do care about these ideologies because software freedom ultimately is important and people do benefit from it. It just needs to be as good as, if not better than, it's non-free counterparts
I look at it like this: the percentage of most people directly using FOSS vs proprietary software is 0%.
If I can get them to use even one piece of FOSS software, that increases the percentage, which is a win for FOSS.
I moved my parents onto Linux Mint a few months ago. They still use Spotify, Gmail, Chrome, Outlook, Onedrive, etc. But they are doing that through Linux, and I got them to switch their office suite from MS Office to OnlyOffice.
So instead of them being 100% on proprietary software, they are now using Linux, which protects them from malware and Microsofts spyware and bs, and makes them aware slightly of FOSS and how good it can be.
That is a net win as far as I can see. FOSS usage just increased slightly, and proprietary decreased, no other tradeoffs were made.
I'm glad some folks actually "get it".
Computers are tools to get stuff done. It's ok to be a big FOSS advocate, but when you put your need to be a absolutist over practicality, you really lost the real world use of things.
As a freeware stan, i dont disagree. Ease-of-use v. a one time fee for many ppl is going to be a no brainer in not the direction i would go with. Nevertheless, i still imagine that the more free software alternatives there are, the more the overall quality of software will go up as well. Similarly, if there are more software alternatives, the higher the chance that ppl choose a stable option by an independent dev asking for a reasonable price.