[discuss] Voice on Internet: Skype, Gizmo, Linphone, Ekiga, Wengo, oh-my..

[Evan Leibovitch]

Don Kelly wrote:
> It is very important to be able to bend like the reed in the wind.
> But, users become invested in a software solution.  How do we balance
> the natural tendency to avoid changing a system that "works" when a
> free software solution becomes available?  How do advocates of free
> software avoid creating extra work of convincing a user that a
> solution with the same features is somehow "better" simply because
> it's free software?
>   

Quite simply, we need to deal with the reality that to many, freedom of
source code isn't _in itself_ a sufficient reason for end-users to switch.

Linux use is not growing in corporate data centres simply because it's
FLOSS, it's there because it's functionally superior and/or better
value. Ditto for Apache and many other thriving projects.

It's not until the freedom of the software results in functional and/or
cost benefit to end users that such switches occur. That may be an
unpleasant reality, but it exists nonetheless, and it's part of the
reason why desktop success of FOSS has been so much slower to come than
in the server room.

I understand full well that inertia is as big an obstacle to FLOSS
adoption as any proprietary vendor. However, the alternative --
advocating solutions that are knowingly inferior in the hopes that
they'll one day be up to scratch -- offers the potential of a far more
dangerous long-term consequence.

- Evan