Mike Bursell

3049 points
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UK

I've been in and around Open Source since around 1997, and have been running (GNU) Linux as my main desktop at home and work since then: not always easy...  I'm a security bod and architect, co-founder of the Enarx project, and am currently CEO of a start-up in the Confidential Computing space.  I have a blog - "Alice, Eve & Bob" - where I write (sometimes rather parenthetically) about security.  I live in the UK and like single malts.

Authored Comments

My response to your first two comments is - well, get involved in projects, and make them better.

The third one - well, I'm happy with Civ5 on Steam, but maybe that's me. But gaming _is_ one of those difficult ones. Dual-booting is an option...

VMs are terrible for anything but the lightest apps: yes. They're a last resort.

Many of your points come down to what seems to be a fundamental difference of opinion: that the choice to use Linux is a moral one. If you believe this, then using Linux and open source, even when there are (currently) better alternatives is a path towards _improving_ the existing O/S and apps so that they're on par with the proprietary versions.

And I affirm that it _is_ a moral choice. When you use and contribute to open source software (whether FOSS or not), you're benefitting not just yourself, but the community, and the world at large, who get more choice, more openness, and can (maybe) pay less to vendors who lock them in.

"I installed Mint as a dual boot", is a step, but not a big one. "I installed Mint, used it, submitted bug reports for the O/S and applications, provided documentation, translations and a couple of patches": _that's_ an act that benefits the community and the commonwealth (https://opensource.com/article/17/11/commonwealth-open-source). And there's nothing to stop you volunteering at the same time - and using a Linux desktop while you do. :-)

(Just an explanation - on the "alienating customers" point, what I meant what was not that we should force people to use an O/S that doesn't work for them, but that we shouldn't use what _they_ use just to keep them happy.)