Re the Barber article

[woodsmoke]

This post is just "to get people thinking" as it were.

I now have two laboratory assistants, both of them were home schooled. One of them was given an Ipad when she went to college. She types on it.

In my classes I still have people with laptops but now also have people with Ipads and two people who have cell phones that have the "think office" type things on them and actually use the phones to take notes.

Things are a shiftin, but I had not looked at it from the standpoint of the article.

I tried to get a local cell phone modder to try to put "a" Linux on my old HTC Android but he said that to do that one needs the latest phone with dual core processors or some such.

But, it would seem that if somebody could get Kubu onto one of the "pads" it would be a good thing for the devs to view in a video or something.

The whole "folder" display thing, if viewed as a way to provide instant links for the new user to "places" and the "launcher" to provide quick links to apps could be a first "look" at how Kubu could go easily on a pad type device.

And, apparently something like that is what is being done with the newly announced Linux pad as reviewed in another thread.

woodsmoke

[GreyGeek]

I doubt that KDE itself would make a good small screen OS. Perhaps a 9 or 10" tablet, but not an iPod, iPhone or Android.

KDE Plasma-Active-Two is designed for tablets and smartphones and has touch technology. So is Unity.

[richb]

I agree with GreyGeek that Plasma-Active is the path forward for a Linux KDE like OS for mobile devices. The Spark is due for release mid year. I have my pre-order in, and am looking forward to being an early adopter.

[woodsmoke]

Hi guys
Thanks for the cogent comments.

Something else weasled itself into my wee brain that might have a bearing on "going forward".

I can't give a link but many years ago I ran across an article about "the economics of free(software)".

The basic premise of the article was that "Linux" can offer free as in free beer software and it is an attractive alternative when the other similar software is "expensive", as in a couple of hundred bucks.

But, then the author went on to say: what happens when the other software has it's price reduced SO much that it is then "the equivalent" of "free".

In other words, at what point is Linux totally free office software not an attractive point vis a vis the price of MS Office?

The authors conclusion was that the "price break" was somewhere at a percentage of the price of the total package.

And, that was brought up in this article. Why put a hundred and twenty five dollar software package on a phone that costs somewhat a couple of hundred phone.

Is a ten dollar word processor (that is adequate given it is in a phone) the same as "free" software from Linux?

That is one reason that I pushed Koffice so much. It was about as different a "paradigm" as one would get from MS office.

In the same way, the plasma interface of KDE really does offer a "maleable" interface.

The unity interface is rather "stuck" with the icons down the side.

We laugh at the "tic tac toe" interface of Windows mobile but it does offer a really crystal clear, "click here" to the user.

I think that it is possible that the folder view of KDE could do the same. The interface might have, instead of tasks, folders that are on the side of the screen. When the folder is tapped, then all of the apps for say, office, appear and one taps the desired app.

Both Unity and MS mobile offer, for want of a better word, a "brute force" approach.

It is possible that there really is a place for "elegance" even in these small form factors, and the KDE folder system would seem to me to offer that.

woodsmoke

[Snowhog]

Hi guys
I can't give a link but many years ago I ran across an article about "the economics of free(software)".

By chance, was it this article: The Economics of Free Software

[woodsmoke]

Yep, that's it!

You are so smaart!

thanks

woodsmoke

[GreyGeek]

Hi guys
.....
went on to say: what happens when the other software has it's price reduced SO much that it is then "the equivalent" of "free".

......
Is a ten dollar word processor (that is adequate given it is in a phone) the same as "free" software from Linux?
....

That analysis ignores one important feature about FOSS, the GPL and what it means. Even IF Office were sold for $10 it would probably still be sold under a DRM and license which restricted what the purchaser could do with it, like installing it on more than one PC, or on your kid's PCs in addition to your own, or on your neighbor's PC.

You can do ALL of that with any piece of FOSS but not Office.

[woodsmoke]

I totally agree GG but I think that what the authors were discussing is ...

not what WE know......

but what the uninitiated user perceives and at this stage.

The uninitiated user probably has not heard of any of the things you mention and are therefore of no consequence. And, in the parlance of the marketplace, one gets what one PAYS for...so, something paid for is probably better than something free even if it is just a ten dollar app.

And, being on a phone as an app creates a new willing suspension of disbelief.

The app on the phone may be "truncated", they do not really know until they open it, but on a phone one expects somewhat different capabilities.

So, again, I think that the point of the article is not all the FOSS advantages we see but the perception of the uninitiated user.

woodsmoke

[SecretCode]

The uninitiated user will pay $10 for a bit of office software - pay it again for his kid's device - and pay $5 for a security app that shouldn't be needed in the first place - and ...