

Why Linux Doesn't Spread - the Curse of Being Free ("free = not valuable") - nickb
http://blog.anamazingmind.com/2008/02/why-linux-doesnt-spread-curse-of-being.html

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konsl
This is way off. Free always beats paid. Your example of champagne is somewhat
accurate (i.e.
[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_dri...](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article3177658.ece)),
but I don't think the same concept applies to software. When some alternatives
cost money, consumers will almost always choose free. Why do people use
Windows?

(1) It is pre-installed on machines - note: Linux is no longer "free" when you
need to install it yourself

(2) It is included in the PCs price or consumers aren't aware of or given
"free" alternatives

(3) Historically, *nix has been too difficult to install/use, lack of
software, etc

Think about this: how much did MySQL just sell for? How much does MySQL cost?

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dkokelley
Hmm. You still have to consider the distributions of linux that are in fact
very expensive. Look at Novell's distro. It's so fancy you can only rent it a
few years out. That common man's XP you can keep pretty much forever. It will
still be interesting to see the results of his experiment, though I think he
will need more time to make a solid conclusion. One week doesn't seem like
enough to me.

P.S. I know my argument about Novell ignores the fact that he was using
pirated examples. I'm pointing out that even similarly priced OSes don't get
as much market share as windows.

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pmjordan
I'm not sure I buy into this argument. Most non-techy people I know have no
idea how much a Windows license costs.

I'm often asked whether a specific offer for a PC "is a good deal" -
invariably this is something off eBay which comes without an OS. When I
mention how much a Windows license will cost on top of that, I'm usually
accused of lying. (until I prove it)

Roughly as many times, I've been consulted when people "can't find Word" on
their brand-new PC. For some reason everyone seems to think it comes free with
Windows.

The most frequent piece of computer-related advice I get asked, though, is
what "good, free virus scanner" I recommend.

I know the human mind is irrational and backwards, but is it really _that_
backwards?

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DaniFong
I really think it's mostly because Linux still requires a high degree of
techyness, and the product and hardware support isn't great unless you really
know what your doing.

It's still a pain to get flash or java on ubuntu, openoffice won't deal with
docx formats, powerpoint isn't available, printers are a pain to set up, even
modem support is complicated and bad out of the box -- I had to setup a
virtualization layer just to get my wireless working.

It really shouldn't be any wonder it's not getting widespread adoption; there
are confounding factors, but I don't think we need to posit price signaling to
make sense of this.

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nickb
This post reminded me of Kopelman's "Anti-penny gap"
<http://redeye.firstround.com/2008/01/some-thoughts-o.html>

Price signaling is very real. High price almost always signals quality. Just
look at luxury industry and how they can sell $30 worth of goods & labor for
$1000s of dollars.

~~~
davidw
See also Veblen Goods:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good>

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trevelyan
The main hurdle I experience on a daily basis is not the perception of value
but the fact that being free creates mindshare battles that work against
distributed collaboration and contribution. It is MUCH more difficult to
organize collaboration around content that can be freely replicated.

Why? Users tend to migrate towards interfaces that focus on content
presentation rather than those which focus on getting stuff done. This works
in favour of WYSIWYG style projects like Wikipedia but works against OSS-
driven web services.

One solution would be for major search engines like Google to skew rankings
based on the presence or absense of generic AdSense-style advertising. This is
unlikely to happen as long as search functionality is tightly knitted to ad
networks.

