On Tue, 2003-11-11 at 09:59, Glynn Foster wrote: > > 5 What do you see as current threats to the future of a complete Free > > Software desktop? And what would you like the GNOME Foundation to be > > doing to address these issues? > > (coriodan) > > http://www.gnomedesktop.org/comments.php?sid=1428&op=showcomment&tid=19293 > In short, difficult problems. I think everyone's fairly confident that > GNOME can make it as a viable alternative desktop environment, but > unless we solve these difficult problems adoption of GNOME is going to > be slow. > > For example, how many of us take for granted plugging in a camera or a > memory stick into a Windows or MacOSX box and everything just work out > of the box? How many people actually care about patented > multimedia codecs? How many people just want something that 'Just > Works'? These are the problems that are traditionally hard to solve, the > problems that take lots of time, lots of energy and, most importantly, > lots of communication. Well, how many people will want to run software that's going to be a dead certain patent infringement lawsuit invitation? In countries where software patents are a current reality the act of distributing and using GNOME if it carries unlicensed ideas (puke, agh.. gahh... just the thought of it) may be a serious problem. This is not a secondary issue... and video codecs are not the only software patent problems (remember spring-loaded folders?)! > consistently getting better at. I'd like to see the GNOME Foundation > Board being a resource for contacting various groups, sitting them down > and providing any resources they need for solving these problems. But do > we have the time? I think so. I would wish the new board will continue to seriously think (and act as it can, hopefully more) about this issue, as it did in the web site shutdown in September (btw, thanks for participating)! In some countries it is seriously a problem. In some (Europe, for instance) the danger is not yet avoided. Some have a lot more serious issues to deal with (like many African nations). Hugs, Rui -- + No matter how much you do, you never do enough -- unknown + Whatever you do will be insignificant, | but it is very important that you do it -- Gandhi + So let's do it...? Please AVOID sending me WORD, EXCEL or POWERPOINT attachments. See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
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