[logicrook]

The point I'm making does not involve Canonical. When discussing a switch to Linux, most people answer with something like "oh but it should support X (MEGAcorp product) so I can't switch". It should support .docx, or whatever latest proprietary protocols. And when this is implemented, there will be a new shiny closed thing to have.

Also, in its current form your comment is just a Perfect Solution Fallacy.

[criley2]

>"oh but it should support X (MEGAcorp product) so I can't switch".

> It should support .docx, or whatever latest proprietary protocols. And when this is implemented, there will be a new shiny closed thing to have.

This is fascinating. The word you're looking for is "features".

Consumers want this annoying little thing called "cutting edge features".

I've literally in my entire life developing software never seen someone find a way to cast "feature seeking users" as the bad people addicted to MEGAcorp or whatever.

On the surface, your entire argument appears to be that if regular users didn't constantly want well polished and shiny new features, open source software would be successful.

[logicrook]

>This is fascinating. The word you're looking for is "features".

This is fascinating. You are confusing "features" with "interacting with closed software".

Want to take an example? Go have a look at Krita. It has so many "cutting edge features" it's impressive, and many people honestly think that it's better than Photoshop. Yet what I would even say is its biggest problem is its inability to open PS brushes. Now if you spent some time on HN, you must have read about the sheer horror that is the PSD format. So it's not just comparing the two softwares on an objective basis.

[criley2]

Hey Krita is a great case to make but I would characterize it as the "exception to the rule" not the rule of open source software.

Photoshop is a bit of a leviathan and it's odd how no one has ever really competed with it strongly and the software has certainly suffered from its lack of real competition.

There's also the reality that its primary users -- designers, photographers, digital artists and the likes, aren't usually programmers or techie people who use a large variety of complicated software, and so for its primary users, they know Photoshop like they know their Canon, they know the details of the brand and setup and change is hard for them as well.

EDIT: To corroborate this last paragraph with an anecdote, I asked a digital artist friend of mine if she'd used Krita, and her reply was: "I'm leery of open source though. like great for devianart and stuff but often find saving problems, glitches etc", so that helps demonstrate how ingrained artists can be to their tools.

Krita seems great -- but that doesn't make Ubuntu better than W10 or OSX, and it doesn't mean that LibreOffice is in the same decade as Word and/or 360 or Google Docs, etc etc.

[fucking_tragedy]

I've used Linux on my primary machines for about 14 years. It's running on close to a dozen devices within a dozen feet of me right now.

If a user has need X, the user should use a solution that suits need X. Shoehorning a solution that doesn't meet the requirements still leaves need X unmet.

Desktop Linux meets (some, not all of) my needs. It does not meet my mom's, partner's, most friends' and colleagues' needs.

Behind the right interface, Linux does meet millions of users' mobile needs however.

[drzaiusapelord]

>MEGAcorp product

Except only MEGAcorp product is competitive. Sorry, the GIMP doesn't replace photoshop and GnuCash doesn't replace my accounting suite.

Maybe FOSS needs to try harder to compete with MEGAcorp product instead of mocking people. The year of the linux desktop didn't happen for a reason. Stop pretending the problem isn't the product.

[logicrook]

>Sorry, the GIMP doesn't replace photoshop

See my other comment and go have a look at Krita.

>Except only MEGAcorp product is competitive.

Are you denying the existence of VLC, Firefox, and other successful OSS?

>Maybe FOSS needs to try harder to compete with MEGAcorp product instead of mocking people.

Who in free software has been mocking you? Is it that trolly Linus? Darn, he just never stops.

[praneshp]

I respect your sentiments in this thread, but I would've felt mocked at if I were at the receiving end of your comments.

[chaosfox]

except docx is an open format..

[Freak_NL]

Nominally, OOXML is an open format. But in practice it is littered with legacy Microsoft Office stuff only Word can do right and weird hacks. LibreOffice/OpenOffice do a good job in implementing OOXML, but despite these efforts .docx documents often have lots of little issues when opened outside of Microsoft Office.

Compare the OOXML standard's 6000 pages to ODF's 600. I have worked with both for the purpose of generating documents from scratch, and OOXML is a monster.

Not to mention the ballot-stuffing that occurred to get OOXML accepted as an ISO-standard…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standardization_of_Office_Open...