Categories
Comic eric raymon esr ipod linus torvalds mobile phone nra remote control richard stallman rms

Eric buys an Ipod

everybody loves eric raymond episode 55 strip

“We have a serious problem. Whenever I try to pitch Linux to anyone under 30, the question I get is: ‘Will it work with my iPod? We are not yet as a community making the painful compromises need to achieve widespread desktop market share.”

Eric knows people under 30? And they listen to him?

I can think of a painful compromise of the FOSS software community. And it has a blog.

Thanks to Matthew Garrett for script help.

19 replies on “Eric buys an Ipod”

I like my music in a round shape with a hole in the middle, standing on my shelf inside a rectangular cardboard or plastic casing.

I don’t give a flying falafel about no em-pee-threez.

Even if someone makes a digital media thingamabob that plays nothing but patent-free OGG and FLAC and runs on HURD covered with GPL v3.14159.2653589 license, i’ll still prefer CD’s (without DRM, thank you.)

ESR is talking about how the “iPod” generation only wants something that just works. They’ll even shell out $300 for something that is programmed to just work for nine months.

Perelman T-shirt: Robin Williams plays Perelman in “Good Proof Hunting” saying “You know what, take your medal and shove it up your ass.”

ESR was talking about inability to convert music back and forth, not use USB storage. He’s right that Linux doesn’t support it (legally). He’s wrong though about what we need to do. We need to convert content providers to use standards compliant and patent unencumbered formats, then the devices will talk to Linux automatically. Some music stores allow me to chose between Ogg Vorbis and let’s say MP3. That’s progress, but until the choice will be Ogg only, player manufacturers don’t give a… what’s a flying falafel?

Comments are closed.