Shuttleworth: "Apple is driving the innovation"

by babul • 18 years ago

10 7 18 years ago

PieSquared2• 18 years ago

I just gained a whole lot more respect for that man:

" I think we don't yet deliver a good enough user experience. I think we deliver a user experience for people that have a reason to want to be on the Linux platform, either because of price or because of freedom. If that was your primary reason, Linux is the right answer.

But if you are somebody who is not too concerned about price, who is not too concerned about freedom, I don't think we can say the Linux desktop offers the very best experience."

Herring2• 18 years ago

I'll play devil's advocate for a sec. If some user doesn't care about freedom/price, why should anyone care about him using linux? Linux is free; I don't imagine a higher market share will increase profits much. Seems to me like shuttleworth's doesn't know who his customers are & I wonder how far he'll get running this as a charity.

RK• 18 years ago

This doesn't sound like a charity:

http://www.canonical.com/services

Actual profitability is, of course, another question.

natrius• 18 years ago

"If some user doesn't care about freedom/price, why should anyone care about him using linux?"

Network effects. The more Linux users there are, the greater the incentive for companies to support their hardware and software on Linux.

akeefer• 18 years ago

Many of the people who contribute to Linux do so because they feel it's "the right thing" in some sense (though that can mean a lot of things). There's a lot to be said for network effects increasing the value of Linux for everyone, but for a lot of people it's simply that they get their gratification from feeling like they've helped build something that other people enjoy and find useful. If more people use and enjoy what you've built it's simply more rewarding to do the work.

Shuttleworth: "Apple is driving the innovation"

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