Too Much Free Software

liuspider

原文：
http://freshmeat.net/articles/view/774/
下面是节选。大意是 不要重复劳动，而应该联合起来！

Too much Free Software? And you thought people were complaining about a lack of applications which makes them stick with Microsoft Windows. Well, they're right. On Linux, there's no decent movie player and no working sound recorder (like the one in Windows 95) shipped as the default by GNOME, but hey, there are more than 385 text editors! Choice is good, but it's frustrating when none of the alternatives works properly.


We have a lot of Free Software alternatives, but because there are so many, they usually remain at a low level of features, as Free Software developers are a limited resource. There are exceptions (GIMP), but they usually have major companies behind them (Open Office, Mozilla) which know what the users want and what to ask from their developers.


We also have a natural selection process which will result in the best software in time. In a lot of time. This would be the best selection if all the software in the world would be Free, but it's not, and we are running out of time. The legality of using some DVD players under Linux is unclear, people are put in prison for writing useful software, and Microsoft makes Palladium and has more than enough money to make it required by law. Soon, we won't even be able to borrow books anymore. Many Web sites require Microsoft Internet Explorer to be usable, including some which are running critical bank and government services.


In order to avoid this, we have to get more users to use Free Software. Non-Internet Explorer users can be safely ignored when they are less than 2% on the Web, but not when they're 50%. So how do we get more people using Free Software? Preaching about it doesn't work with the majority, which has been so dumbed down by the importance of money as not to care for liberty anymore. We could try making Free Software much better than the standard desktop operating system used today, Microsoft Windows, and for this we have to stand united.