One of the most common objections raised when considering a move to free software goes something like “I can’t switch, because my favorite program isn’t available on GNU/Linux.” They perceive the inability to run a specific piece of proprietary software as a technical deficiency of the free system. They see it as a bug. This reaction misunderstands the point of the transition: They’re judging the free world by its ability to replicate the prison walls they just left.
Yep.
Gotta keep telling them about the 4 freedoms of free software, showing how it’s not just another platform for consumers to hope their daddy corporation is the kindest to them.
The other misunderstanding is on us:
There are simply many people willing to pay for convenient easy to use software regardless of the control or privacy implications 🤷♀️
Convenience over freedom / privacy / security / equality / justice. We see this all over the place. Many people prefer comfort over challenge. That seems a survival instinct. And it works against us.
Yep
And plenty adult well of people simply dont know/care about data privacy
They buy windows or mac
And choose the common easy options for their work places etc
A mind-boggling amount of work has gone into lowering the barrier of entry. I think as the gap continues to close, it’ll become a less compelling “selling point”
Awareness of how easy and nice it is, seems a greater hurdle than how easy and nice it is. From my experience, [in 2003, with my first install of suse as a fresh windows refugee] it was already easy enough before ubuntu came along advertising that it made it easier and nicer (~ I noticed no significant change from ubuntu to how easy and nice it was, they just had stronger marketing).
People just don’t know [how easy and nice it is].
Same as they don’t know the distinction of free software being an entirely different philosophical paradigm to live, not just another platform to be abused by.
Many people’s income, especially in creative fields, simply depends on specific software. Photographers, video editors come to mind; having a certain style and efficiency to your workflow might just be the thing that keeps the cash flow positive. There’s often no time or energy to even think about an alternative, sadly. This is one of the things why I think it’s crucially important we don’t demand, even implicitly, that people switch everything at once. I just installed Spotify flatpak on a friend’s Debian. No regrets. Every little switch matters in the end.
Adobe stuff still doesn’t work reliably on Linux to my knowledge. And having to even consider any kind of virtualization is a huge deal for anyone who’s using the technology for some other purpose than technology, which is most of the users.
[User-lock-in] Nonsense.
There are an abundance of creative tools with free software licenses.
A poor artist blames his tools.
Don’t fall for the user-lock-in of the likes of Adobe.
I’m an artist since birth. Using the computer, foremost, for art, and in 2003 when I decided to switch from M$windows, I had already seen, in college a couple years prior, from using sgi machines with IRIX, that there are alternatives out there for creative use, so that maybe eased my way out of the mind-capture of the user-lock-in, already having that ignorance smashed by experience. When I sought an alternative from the abuses of M$ windoze, I at first was thinking I would be taking my familiar Adobe tools and softimage|XSI with me. But in the search, I found the free software philosophy, and the notion of even falling back on using wine to continue to run the software (and software (licensing) paradigm) that had been abusing me withered away too.
Never regretted it.
Bye bye Stockholm syndrome.
i recently switched to linux after using windows since the 90s (MS DOS before that). it wasn’t a “seamless” transition, but i really haven’t sacrificed anything as far as what i use the pc for–FOSS applications do everything i need, and steam’s compatibility is king. probably the most seamless thing about switching.
fuck ms and windows
Also compatibility layers and virtual machines are a thing, making the environment even less relevant.
Piracy does some of that too.
