First shot fired in the Battle with the Penguin?

[Robert Brockway]

On Thu, 22 Dec 2005, Scott Elcomb wrote:

> I ran into the nodice.ca Election Talk forums earlier today, and
> thought about Evan's thread.  What do "general users" (the genernal
> population) know about issues that might be relevant to their online
> health?

Most of the population know nothing about FOSS even in 2005.  I ran into 
someone I used to know recently (we were seated next to each other on a 
flight).  Among other things the topic of Linux and FOSS came up.  He had 
heard of neither.  He is an engineer who runs a company that makes 
specialised components for various industries.  For example, he pointed 
out several parts of the 737 we were in that his company had made for 
Boeing.

He's an intelligent man running a technical company and he had not heard 
of Linux or FOSS.

Now imagine all of those people who have nothing to do with computers or 
any technical field.  They haven't the slighest idea that there are 
alternatives to MS-Windows or MAc OSX available.

Back on Software Freedom Day 2005 I helped out at a stall at a computer 
show in which we explained FOSS & Linux.  A good deal of the attendees 
(who have much greater computer knowledge than the general population) had 
only the vaguest notion about what Linux was and most had no idea about 
FOSS at all.

Bottom line - we are still in the very early days of FOSS acceptance and 
adoption.

Rob

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