RE: [Axiom-developer] opinion

[Bill Page]

On May 25, 2005 11:52 AM Kostas Oikonomou wrote:

> ...
> Bill Page wrote:
>> on the Windows version since that is the version that needs
>> the most work and seems to be of interest to the most people
>> (based on the statistics from the MathAction website).
>
> I wasn't aware of these statistics.

See http://page.axiom-developer.org/usage

and in particular, take a look at the current stats for May

http://page.axiom-developer.org/usage/usage_200505.html#TOPURLS

look for the number of downloads of axiom-windows-0.1.4 at
line 19. Now look for downloads of the Linux versions :(
unfortunately none are listed in this "top 30" list ):


>
>> But are you suggesting that we, as volunteer open source
>> developers, could somehow charge a fee for downloading the
>> Windows version of Axiom? I don't see how this could work.
>
> No, I'm not suggesting that at all.

Good.

> I am expressing frustration with "trying to be compatible
> with Windows" or "trying to get something to work on Windows",
> when the mentality of Windows is to not recognize the existence
> of anything else.

Of course that is true. But the number of people who use
Windows far out numbers the number of people who use Linux.
And more and more people are using open source software on
Windows. Perhaps it is a dilemma for open source software
developers, but one of the main ideas of open source concerns
freedom of choice. The very existence of open source projects
such as Axiom often depends on somehow attracting potential
volunteer developers from the pool of actual users of the
software. Anything that one can do to increase this pool of
potential contributors surely benefits all users, on both
Linux and windows.

> For example, I experience this frustration as an OpenOffice
> user, when M$ makes sure that there is always some
> incompatibility between PowerPoint and the version in
> OpenOffice (called Impress).

I strongly promote the use OpenOffice over the Microsoft office
products and so far compatibility hasn't been a problem for me.
OpenOffice runs equally well on both Windows and Linux so I
think OpenOffice is an excellent example of the potential for
collaboration between open source software and a commercial
company (Sun's Star Office product), even though admittedly
Microsoft is not such a "team player".

Regards,
Bill Page.