Windows (L)users Are People, Too
by John Mark Walker - Oct. 16, 2009Comments (5)- Related Blog Posts
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In the world of open source, there's a narrative that has predominated since the time that the term open source was coined - that being the need for the underlying platform to be open source. We can tolerate proprietary software on an open platform, such as Linux, much more than we tolerate free software on a closed platform, like Windows.
For all of open source's self-professed pragmatism, there is a noticeable gap between how Linux users are supported and how Windows users are supported. For example, the creation of repositories of free software for Windows that are comprehensive and updated regularly has yet to happen. Cygwin is neither comprehensive nor a good performer - at least in my experience. MinGW might offer a means for producing native Windows software, but is not a distribution, per se. Microsoft's own Subsystem for Unix Applications provides perhaps the best performance of all and a readily available GNU development toolkit, but is severely underutilized and practically unheard of, and thus, has not yet produced a full, practical solution. If we are truly as pragmatic as we like to think, perhaps the time has come to close this gap.
When I first began to piece together my ideas for a conference on the topic of open source and Windows (more on that in an upcoming blog post), I expected many small startups to jump on board en masse. Not only was that not the case, but quite the opposite happened - open source ISV's were *afraid of* attaching their names to such an effort. It seems that much of the open source world, even the commercial piece of it, is still afflicted with punk rockers disease - uncomfortable with success and what is required to achieve it.Â
 I've been a Linux guy for a long time, but if I were heading up an open source ISV and wanted to ensure the longevity of my business, it would seem that it's in my interest to make lives easier for Windows users and, you know, perhaps actually tell someone about it. It's silly to think that we're going to win over the vast majority of the world to the idea of a self-regulated market with specified rights, a la open source, if we systematically ignore Windows users.Â
As with politics, sometimes you're better able to exert influence from the inside than the outside. Also, to get more people involved in the conversation, we need to be able to "talk right down to earth in a language that everybody here can easily understand."
Now, who's going to step up and create the great open source distribution for Windows?
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