[LINK] World Domination 201

[Brendan Scott]

Craig Sanders wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 12, 2007 at 10:25:18PM +1100, Rick Welykochy wrote:
>> Fred Pilcher wrote:
>>
>>> An interesting treatise on the potential of Linux to take over the
>>> world by 2008.
>>> http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/world-domination/world-domination-201.html#id247970
> 
> esr's an interesting writer, but you have to take what he says with a very
> large grain of salt.
> 
> i've met both esr and rms...and while esr is much nicer in person
> and has good social skills (which rms most definitely does not -
> understatement of the year) i have a lot more respect for rms and his
> principles. i like esr, but you've got to remember he's a gun-totin'
> loony libertarian, which is why he's into "open source" rather than that
> socialist "free software" stuff.
> 
> 
>> The list of proprietary pieces to the puzzle that can make Linux a
>> competitive and killer desktop is here:

[]

> running this multimedia stuff is not hard on any modern linux distro.
> the (slightly) hard bit is not having web sites able to run them without
> your permission. you need to install the NoScript, AdBlock Plus, and
> Flashblock plugins - so that YOU control which sites are allowed to run
> this stuff, and when.
> 
> if this is all they can come up with, it looks like they're trying very
> hard to find some competitive advantage.

I think the point is not whether it is doable, but whether it can be preloaded.  Distros which are ideologically pure don't and won't support preloading of closed components.

His underlying thesis is that multimedia will drive the 64 bit platform.  I am not convinced by this.  
 
 
Brendan