An article was posted on Slashdot.org talking about why users drop open source apps for proprietary apps. Here is a quote from maximus1 from the post:
“Hard as it may be to imagine, ‘free’ is not always the primary selling point to open source software. This article makes some interesting points about subtle ways Open Source projects might lose to the competition. Lack of features is a common answer you’d expect, but the author points out that complicated setup and configuration can be a real turn-off.[emphasis mine -Will] Moreover, open source companies may not do enough to market major upgrades. If they did, they might lure back folks who tried and dumped the earlier, less polished version. This raises the question: what made you dump an open source app you were using? What could that project have done differently?”
I have toyed with Linux and other open source applications on and off since 1996. Starting with Slackware, I was interested in this alternative to Microsoft. At that time, I didn’t know enough about computers, Linux, or anything other than how to power use a computer.
Recently, I tried running Ubuntu on my home laptop as my full-time operating system. For the most part it worked. However, I did have some issues that aren’t there when I run Windows XP on the same physical hardware. Getting Adobe Flash installed wasn’t as easy as it should have been. Making sure my audio didn’t lag behind the video was never resolved. OpenOffice just doesn’t open Microsoft Word Documents well enough (although this also happens with OpenOffice on Windows, too). Also, not playing video content with synchronized audio was the most annoying. When I would watch video (online or from file) the audio would be just about a half second behind. Very annoying. Never happened in Windows.
So, I moved back to Windows XP because, honestly, I want to watch LOST on Hulu.com with no jitter, no lag in sound, and no worries.
Now, I’m not giving up open source apps. I will run them in Windows XP or the newish Portable Ubuntu Remix.
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