Open source will win quietly, not through public displays of affection

So, Felton, California has declared "Lindependence Day." The idea, which took weeks of town meetings to prepare, has the city's citizens going proprietary software-free for a week.

Yahoo.

In the meantime, hundreds of millions of people are slowly being acclimated to open-source software via Firefox, Adium, TiVo, and other open-source software (or open-source software-based) applications. Which do you think is more likely to result in a revolution?

Open source won't win through rallies and petitions. It will win as it becomes better and better, such that normal people want to use it. I tricked out my mom's Firefox browser this weekend and she's so excited about the installation of Forecastfox, Adblock Plus, and other things that I think the odds of her going back to Internet Explorer are next to nil.

This is how open source wins. One person at a time, one application at a time.

[ZUrlocker]

This is great news. I think open source becomes more widely used every day. But I must admit, having lived in Felton a few years back, I am not sure how big a victory this really is. Felton has something like 4 bars, a strip mall and a state park, where I go running.

While no doubt famous for its use of Linux, it's usually in the news for more mundane things:
http://www.mercurynews.com/centralcoast/ci_10168308?nclick_check=1

--Zack

[kiwibuntu]

There is no One True Way for open source to win. The following can all play their part: good software engineering, rallies and local publicity events, policy changes (esp at government level), litigation against anti-competitive practices, blogging (;-)) etc etc. Good on them all.

[lcafiero]

Matt --

Thanks for mentioning the Lindependence project in your blog.

This may come as a surprise to you, but I think we're in agreement, and I would like to think your "Yahoo" was more sincere than sarcastic. I, too, believe that many are being exposed to open source through Firefox, etc., as well as sharing your opinion that the open source software movement only helps itself by becoming "better and better, such that normal people want to use it."

Ask yourself this: How can people use something they don't know about? There is a significant amount of the population that is not being introduced to open source programs as well, and this is where the Lindependence projects -- without petitions and without rallies -- take their place as an opportunity to introduce GNU/Linux and to FOSS programs to people who are not exposed to it, whether it's in small groups or in one program and one user at a time.

Thanks again for the mention.

Larry Cafiero
Lindependence 2008
Felton, California
http://www.lindependence.net

[jeni7]

Affection is not what open source needs. It needs just the opposite. Disaffection and sites like PromotingLinux.com