OpEd on Why Freeware in Linux Dominates Over Windows
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http://www.howtogeek.com/207964/just-switch-to-linux-if-you-want-to-download-lots-of-freeware/
An interesting piece on why Linux is winning because of a healthier ecosystem.
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That is actually quite interesting. I think most people using Windows to find software who have experienced other systems feel this pain but do not necessary know how to articulate what is wrong. The ecosystem is certainly not healthy with Windows.
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I wonder if the free curated ecosystem would be maintainable if Linux became a common desktop deployment?
How much of this problem will be solved with a better MS store? Apple has already proved that people are willing to pay for apps that just work. If MS is willing to curate their store to keep the malware at bay and developers are able to sell small apps for $1-10 or more, we might find ourselves with a better situation.
Is MS late to this game, sure, but they seem to be going in the right direction.
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@Dashrender said:
How much of this problem will be solved with a better MS store? Apple has already proved that people are willing to pay for apps that just work. If MS is willing to curate their store to keep the malware at bay and developers are able to sell small apps for $1-10 or more, we might find ourselves with a better situation.
I wonder if MS is willing to do that. They've shown to be unwilling to do so on the Windows Phone.
Chocolatey fills this gap to some degree.
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@Dashrender said:
I wonder if the free curated ecosystem would be maintainable if Linux became a common desktop deployment?
What aspect of commonality do you feel might cause an issue? It's very possible that it would, I am just not sure what would trigger it. Linux is already so broadly used and the curated package base so large that I am not sure that an issue would arise from greater or more desktop focused use.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
I wonder if the free curated ecosystem would be maintainable if Linux became a common desktop deployment?
What aspect of commonality do you feel might cause an issue? It's very possible that it would, I am just not sure what would trigger it. Linux is already so broadly used and the curated package base so large that I am not sure that an issue would arise from greater or more desktop focused use.As the current Windows developers move to making more apps for Linux instead, why would they not bring their bad habits along that bring the crapware with them? Clearly they don't want to make software for free, they want to be paid and if the only way they can is through crapware addons, then why not?
I'm truly perplexed how this hasn't become a problem on Linux already? Perhaps it's because the install base for end users is so small that the advertisers know they would see little if any place, because those who are installing Linux desktops are the 1% (or less) who would read all of the install options and not allow the install of the crapware. I can't imagine that if Adobe Reader was downloaded millions or billions of times on LInux that they wouldn't try to include the crapware just like they do on Windows.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
I wonder if the free curated ecosystem would be maintainable if Linux became a common desktop deployment?
What aspect of commonality do you feel might cause an issue? It's very possible that it would, I am just not sure what would trigger it. Linux is already so broadly used and the curated package base so large that I am not sure that an issue would arise from greater or more desktop focused use.This is the second or third time I've seen quote broken like this. Scott, did you delete the extra line that ML puts in for you after you quote text?
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I do not believe that I did.
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Ah, maybe I did. I always trim down the quote to just the part that I am responding too and it looks like I didn't leave enough white space.
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@Dashrender said:
As the current Windows developers move to making more apps for Linux instead, why would they not bring their bad habits along that bring the crapware with them? Clearly they don't want to make software for free, they want to be paid and if the only way they can is through crapware addons, then why not?
That's to the miracle of curation. Things like those would either be stripped or blocked from making it into the deployment systems.
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@Dashrender said:
I'm truly perplexed how this hasn't become a problem on Linux already? Perhaps it's because the install base for end users is so small that the advertisers know they would see little if any place, because those who are installing Linux desktops are the 1% (or less) who would read all of the install options and not allow the install of the crapware. I can't imagine that if Adobe Reader was downloaded millions or billions of times on LInux that they wouldn't try to include the crapware just like they do on Windows.
This is the miracle of open source. Open source protects users from these problems. If there is something that obviously makes software worse, people will fix it. You can't easily just cripple software in the way that you can in a closed software ecosystem. The real difference here is that Linux users have no reason to use closed source software with these problems because great software exists that doesn't have those problems and to get into the deployment systems you must be open source. Windows neither has this curation blocking nor the users that demand excellence. It is both a technical and a cultural difference. Linux' lack of a huge, non-technical user community has helped it establish an ecosystem of protection.
Also, the lack of Linux graphical installers makes it very, very hard to do the add ons thing. Not that you can't do it through RPM or APT, but it is not as easy.
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Microsoft screwed up their store when they allowed everyone and his brother to submit apps. The problem is that legitimate vendors don't want to make apps because the market share is so small.
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@IRJ said:
Microsoft screwed up their store when they allowed everyone and his brother to submit apps. The problem is that legitimate vendors don't want to make apps because the market share is so small.
For mobile, yes.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Chocolatey fills this gap to some degree.
IIRC there was an APT-GET like feature coming soon for windows....
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@scottalanmiller said:
@IRJ said:
Microsoft screwed up their store when they allowed everyone and his brother to submit apps. The problem is that legitimate vendors don't want to make apps because the market share is so small.
For mobile, yes.
Moving away from the Metro Screen really hurts the Windows Store on Windows 8 and Windows 10. What is the point when you can find much better software by quickly using google?
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@IRJ said:
Moving away from the Metro Screen really hurts the Windows Store on Windows 8 and Windows 10. What is the point when you can find much better software by quickly using google?
A little, but Linux and Mac don't need that to have stores work really well. I think that Metro undermined this effort for Windows as their store itself was useless for finding things AND it only delivered "Metro apps" which were horrible.
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@MattSpeller said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Chocolatey fills this gap to some degree.
IIRC there was an APT-GET like feature coming soon for windows....
That's what Chocolatey already is
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@scottalanmiller For sure, but I thought there was one to be integrated by MS... shrug
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@MattSpeller said:
@scottalanmiller For sure, but I thought there was one to be integrated by MS... shrug
I think so, but sadly they aren't leading even in their own space here.
