Comment 1503 for bug 1

Personally i think MSN is an important showstopper. Linux implementations of MSN lacks important futures such as cam support, and there are no good alternative.

The problem with implementing MSN or other proprietary protocols is that most of the time is spent in trying to preserve portability. I would suggest designing a new MSN-like protocol that is easy to implement. It should have open specifications, and it should reuse existing FOSS projects as much as possible. Also it should be platform-agnostic, it is perhaps more important to have a Windows client then a Linux client. Remember that Firefox would never have made the web platform agnostic without attracting the Windows users.

First of all we would need a centralized single sign-on service like passport, that use e-mail and password to sing in. The software for this should not be difficult to design and implement, however someone will have to host it. There are not much profit to be made for a open and free SSO server and if successful it could generate a lot of system load.

Here we would have a great advantage. There are no established SSO service other than passport, and its license agreement makes most sites run away as fast as they can, in practice its only usable by Microsoft and some of their partners. If we make something that any site can use, we could attract a lot of sites. Naturally as it would be a open and free solution, we can implement support for it in FOSS software like PHPBB, Drupal etc - something that will never happen with Microsoft Passport.

After that we would have to figure out how to design a open and free chat system. It would need to work like MSN which suggest central servers, and not only for sing-on. When you are signed in, you would expect to be able to send messages to any other users that are signed on. Perhaps we can borrow design from IRC with its networks. It may be impossible to have just one network, and probably disadvantageous as whoever operates it gets a lot of power.

However the general idea is that by designing a new protocol stack we could compete with and probably replace closed protocols like MSN and make messaging a non-issue.

When it comes to Office and Photoshop we don't really need to replace them. The wine team is doing a great job in running them.

I consider IE a non issue, it is rapidly losing usage share... while some sites still requires it they will have to rethink it in the next few years, or turn away a lot of users.

Also remember that what we need is to break Microsofts majority usage share, not to gain 100% of it... personally i would say that getting 10% is a reasonable goal even if it would still leave Microsoft with a majority share... but it would make FOSS the second largest player and push apple to a third place, and i think that would be a great milestone.

In order to grow we do not need to cover every taste, we need to cover the taste of more early adopters. Those that whine about AD and Exchange-integration will continue whining when that is done. They need 100% Windows compatibility and quite frankly we will never have that...

Early adopters however care more about stuff like browsers and instant messaging. Just the fact that Firefox made most of the web browsable on Linux probably doubled the Linux usage share. It is my prediction that taking charge of instant messages will have a similar effect.

> Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2011 18:05:42 +0000
> From: <email address hidden>
> To: <email address hidden>
> Subject: Re: [Bug 1]
>
> ad 2.: Mentioned were: Branch specific, special used apps not platform
> independent and/or not integrated well, AD, Deployment, AS400, Sage,
> Meeting- and Conference-Software, Photoshop, Exchange-Integration,
> Smart-Phone-Integration, AutoCAD, Screen Reader
>
> ad 3.: Mentioned were: MSO vs OO/LO, some proprietary formats can't be
> read, Domain-Integration, Some websites are IE only, General
> compatibility-fears
>
> oh, btw - here's the link to the LinkedIn-Thread: http://lnkd.in/g-24Kf
> --
> Martin Wildam
>
> http://www.google.com/profiles/mwildam
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1
>
> Title:
> Microsoft has a majority market share
>
> Status in Club Distro:
> Confirmed
> Status in Computer Science Ubuntu:
> Confirmed
> Status in dylan.NET.Reflection:
> Invalid
> Status in dylan.NET:
> Invalid
> Status in EasyPeasy Overview:
> Invalid
> Status in elementary OS:
> In Progress
> Status in GenOS:
> In Progress
> Status in GNOME Screensaver:
> Won't Fix
> Status in Ichthux - Linux for Christians:
> Invalid
> Status in JAK LINUX:
> Invalid
> Status in LibreOffice:
> In Progress
> Status in The Linux OS Project:
> In Progress
> Status in The Metacity Window Manager:
> In Progress
> Status in The OpenOffice.org Suite:
> In Progress
> Status in Tabuntu:
> Invalid
> Status in A simple player to online TV streaming:
> Invalid
> Status in Tv-Player:
> New
> Status in Ubuntu Gnome Remix Metapackages:
> In Progress
> Status in Ubuntu:
> In Progress
> Status in “ubuntu-express” package in Ubuntu:
> In Progress
> Status in The Jaunty Jackalope:
> Invalid
> Status in “ubuntu-express” source package in Jaunty:
> Invalid
> Status in Arch Linux:
> New
> Status in Baltix GNU/Linux:
> Invalid
> Status in “linux” package in Debian:
> In Progress
> Status in Fluxbuntu: The Lightweight, Productive, Agile OS:
> Confirmed
> Status in openSUSE:
> In Progress
> Status in Tilix Linux:
> New
>
> Bug description:
> Microsoft has a majority market share in the new desktop PC marketplace.
> This is a bug, which Ubuntu is designed to fix.
>
> Non-free software is holding back innovation in the IT industry,
> restricting access to IT to a small part of the world's population and
> limiting the ability of software developers to reach their full
> potential, globally. This bug is widely evident in the PC industry.
>
> Steps to repeat:
>
> 1. Visit a local PC store.
>
> What happens:
> 2. Observe that a majority of PCs for sale have non-free software pre-installed.
> 3. Observe very few PCs with Ubuntu and free software pre-installed.
>
> What should happen:
> 1. A majority of the PCs for sale should include only free software like Ubuntu.
> 2. Ubuntu should be marketed in a way such that its amazing features and benefits would be apparent and known by all.
> 3. The system shall become more and more user friendly as time passes.
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
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