Where is Henry now?
Free -- as free beer
I participated the first Open Tuesday event here at Helsinki just a few hours ago. So, there actually are occasions where open source means free beer!
Helsinki is a small town and I though I know quite a few people that work with open source. I was surprised to see so many new faces -- people I've never seen before. Many of the people that showed up were not particularly into Linux or open source. They were just curious about open source in general.
A lot of talk
So, everybody knows about Linux. TV and magazines talk about it. All my friends ask me about Nokia and Linux. My next door neighbor told me the other day that he's got an old PC with no use and that he'd like to try Linux on it.
But nobody that I know uses Linux, Gnome, or any of that -- with the exception of those that I work with, of course. My neighbor downloaded Ubuntu but to my knowledge never installed it. We've got the buzz but no actual users.
But why is that? There are many reasons. It is not possible to go and buy a PC with pre-installed Linux in it -- not from a regular consumer electronics shop anyway. Getting a Linux distro and installing it is far too complicated for a regular user, when the alternative is just to use the pre-installed XP. If you want to do music, play games, make home movies, presentations, documents -- or almost anything -- XP or Mac is far more user friendly and powerful. (If you wanna run your own web server, then maybe ....)
How about phones and stuff? Phones based on Symbian, Microsoft, or some home-grown operating systems are more usable and powerful than any Linux based phone I've played with.
Henry wanted!
So, we've got a long way to go. Open source is where horses vs. cars were early last century. Horses and wagons were more reliable, faster, easier to operate, and supported by the infrastructure. However, cars changed everything. The basic concept was superior and Henry Ford figured out how to get it to masses.
With open source, we've got the engines, brakes, chassis and all that figured out now. And, we've got the world class manufacturing process through peer-to-peer production. But where is Henry?
I participated the first Open Tuesday event here at Helsinki just a few hours ago. So, there actually are occasions where open source means free beer!
Helsinki is a small town and I though I know quite a few people that work with open source. I was surprised to see so many new faces -- people I've never seen before. Many of the people that showed up were not particularly into Linux or open source. They were just curious about open source in general.
A lot of talk
So, everybody knows about Linux. TV and magazines talk about it. All my friends ask me about Nokia and Linux. My next door neighbor told me the other day that he's got an old PC with no use and that he'd like to try Linux on it.
But nobody that I know uses Linux, Gnome, or any of that -- with the exception of those that I work with, of course. My neighbor downloaded Ubuntu but to my knowledge never installed it. We've got the buzz but no actual users.
But why is that? There are many reasons. It is not possible to go and buy a PC with pre-installed Linux in it -- not from a regular consumer electronics shop anyway. Getting a Linux distro and installing it is far too complicated for a regular user, when the alternative is just to use the pre-installed XP. If you want to do music, play games, make home movies, presentations, documents -- or almost anything -- XP or Mac is far more user friendly and powerful. (If you wanna run your own web server, then maybe ....)
How about phones and stuff? Phones based on Symbian, Microsoft, or some home-grown operating systems are more usable and powerful than any Linux based phone I've played with.
Henry wanted!
So, we've got a long way to go. Open source is where horses vs. cars were early last century. Horses and wagons were more reliable, faster, easier to operate, and supported by the infrastructure. However, cars changed everything. The basic concept was superior and Henry Ford figured out how to get it to masses.
With open source, we've got the engines, brakes, chassis and all that figured out now. And, we've got the world class manufacturing process through peer-to-peer production. But where is Henry?
posted by Ari Jaaksi at 10:58 PM
5 Comments:
Henry isn't called Henri anymore , he is now called Larry Page, , Sergey Brin or Jimmy Wales (only to name a few) , those are the people that turned Open Source tools into a easy to use platform that EVERYBODY is using Every Day.
PS. Tim O'Reilly already told us that in his Fosdem 2004 Keynote.
Henri was standing just two meters from you at Open Tuesday and also at Open Source 2006. Get in touch.
I'd like to suggest that in one critical sense the 770 is crippled. To allow the 770-type products Nokia is planning it's necessary to add X Terminal and openSSH (the version that allows X forwarding) to the 770's boot image. Putting X on the 770 without allowing it to be used as a remote display protocol is like building a beautiful car and giving it only one door. Nobody should have to hack the 770 (i.e., install X terminal, run Flasher, gainroot, install openSSH) to modify the 770 so that it can use X to display remote X applications.
When the 770 is used as a remote display there's never an issue of whether it has enough memory or storage capacity, or even whether the application has been installed on the 770. It's more like a software TV, really. The people who are preparing the next version of the 770's OS, the one that has VOIP, would be doing us all a big favor if they would do this.
Hello,
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Hello,
Without much luck, I was searching for blogs about Pottery & Glass when I happened across yours. It's a cool blog. Evidently you like telling it like it is! I have a really great ebay website that is easy to use that you may like. If you get a chance, check it out www.licensedbrandsclub.com.
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