Vincent Flanders, of Web Pages That Suck and Fixing Your Web Site, called me on Sunday afternoon to make sure that he was reading the Dive Into Accessibility terms of use correctly and that he could republish the entire book on his site. I assured him that he could, so he did.
We also discussed free (or Free) software which is difficult to [install/learn/maintain] and whose developers charge for [installation/documentation/training]. He has a particular gripe with Movable Type, which he failed to install. That there are detailed MT installation instructions does not console him. That the Movable Type authors offer professional installation for the low low price of $20 only adds insult to injury in Vincent’s mind. He would prefer to pay for software that installs out of the box, even if the long-term experience is inferior. But he’s left feeling that it’s his own fault that he’s stuck with a sub-optimal system, since obviously, if he only knew a little more, he could have had this other system that so many people rave about…
This is all perfectly reasonable. However, in the few minutes that we talked, I failed to convince him that there was a market for both types of software, and that both were equally capitalistic. One trades money for goods, which you could theoretically produce yourself if you wrote code, which you don’t. The other trades money for services, which you could theoretically do yourself if you knew UNIX, which you don’t. That one gives you warm fuzzies, while the other pisses you off, is your own problem.
As I’ve mentioned earlier, even within the Free Software universe, there are degrees. Mandrake Linux has friendly, well-written wizards for everything and retails for $70; Gentoo Linux has 17-step installation instructions that include compiling your own compiler. And I failed to install Gentoo, despite repeated attempts and several IRC chats. I did, however, manage to install Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 on Sunday, in only four tries. The first time, the wireless network driver failed to install properly and I had no network connectivity. The second time, I accidentally installed KDE and couldn’t figure out how to cleanly uninstall it. The third time, I forgot to install some of the kernel modules I need and didn’t feel like recompiling the kernel. The fourth time worked, mostly, although I still have no sound in Enlightenment. I’m quite sure it’s my own fault; obviously, if I only knew a little more…
