Bigbro's foray into the scary world of blogging
Mark Shuttleworth introduced his view on F/OSS and whether the battle for the desktop has been won. The presentation tools used were Ubuntu and OpenOffice - which I'm only aware of because he switched applications during the presentation. His talk consisted of a number of points, detailed below. (Again, apologies for being brief, I was typing as he spoke.)
#13 : Pretty is a FEATURE
"It takes ten times as long to create great software that looks good and is easy to use, as it is to just produce great software."
#12: Consistent PACKAGING
This is a solved problem, but leadership is required from the various leaders of the various distributions - perhaps now is the time to standardise and work on reducing the fragmentation.
#11: Simplified LICENSING
it's obvious really... isn't it? ;-)
#10: Pervasive PRESENCE
We're getting to the stage in software and particularly in operating systems where things should 'just work.'
#9: Pervasive SUPPORT
People still have a concept that Linux is not supported. We need to transform the 'grass-roots' support into a pervasive support structure that everyone can grasp and utilise.
#8: Govaritye PA RUSSKI
Localisation is a huge barrier to adoption, not necessarily by the IT professionals, but by the 5 billion other potential computer users.
#007: Great GADGETS
Linux is getting to lots of cool places, including smart phones, PDAs, the $100 laptop, etc. But when you look at how it's done, there's a huge amount of fragmentation in implementations and functionalities. We need to generate some championship and leadership to drive excitement into the market about this. Penetration of mobile phones on the continent is an order of magnitude greater than fixed line penetration - so there's a HUGE customer base.
#6: Sensory IMMERSION
We want to define a future which is engineered on free software, which makes voice available on the desktop (VoIP, etc.) along with video - so that people can immerse themselves in their desktop.
#5: Getting it TOGETHER
We have an opportunity to leapfrog the commercial collaboration products and provide the tools and environment so that the software can truly enable people to become more productive. E-mail, pervasive connectivity and revision control are some of the tools we should look at bringing to the desktop and office environment. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to invite some other person into your desktop to work with you?
We've already seen some good things happening regarding this in the software world - for example, when Firefox became as good as the commercial alternatives, we saw an explosion in development and a huge wealth of external development, plugins, etc. We want to being this to the desktop.
#4: Plan, execute, DELIVER
We're good at planning and pretty good at executing, but perhaps not so good at the delivery part. F/OSS tends to be built by large numbers of fragmented communities and we need to communicate to the community what's going on, what has been done, what needs to be done and who is responsible for that. This should give a good idea of when things might be ready.
#3: The extra DIMENSION
Mac OS X set the benchmark and it looks like Microsoft will take the lead with Windows Vista. We need to bring tools together and provide new ways of working to make people want to use Linux on the desktop.
#2: Granny's New CAMERA
Linux is already a great desktop for a power user - and is excellent for producing thousands of replicated terminals, or office 'standard configuration' machines. What we need to work on is the middle-ground - the home PC. When Granny plugs in her camera, we want to allow her to install the driver for her camera, or do it automatically, so that she perceives that the camera 'just works.'
#1: Keeping it FREE
The freedom is what drives many of the developers. Keeping it free is Mark Shuttleworth's number one priority and wants the same software available to a millionaire in London and a kid growing up in a shanty town in South Africa.
Solving BUG #1 is the top priority.
posted at: 10:41 | path: /technical | permanent link to this entry
