Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Steam for Linux

[Joel Kahn]

My two cents FWIW....

For Libre Software to really move towards broad
success, I think two elements are needed:

1. Some "killer application/environment" (very
broadly defined) has to emerge from Libre Software
that is not only extremely useful and easy to use,
but which also is something that could *only*
have appeared from Libre Software--in other words,
its usefulness must be so closely intertwined with
its libre nature that it absolutely could never
have emerged from a proprietary setting.

2. This hypothetical killer app must be useful to
the widest possible variety of users, *especially*
people who have very little technical knowledge
and who care nothing about any of the geeky stuff.

So far, we have programs that come close to
satisfying requirement 1, like EMACS, and some
that meet 2, like LibreOffice; but I don't know
of any software that moves seriously towards
covering both of them at once with anything like
the required power and popularity.

I don't believe gaming has any probability of
being the place where success will appear.
"Serious" gamers (whatever that means exactly)
inherently have to be geeks of a sort; and the
more hard core a gamer is, the geekier that
gamer will be. Libre Software has to get out of
the box of techiness and the equally confining
box of ideology, and present clear benefits that
the person on the street will comprehend and want
without a lot of song-&-dance. It just hasn't
happened yet. We need to keep our eyes open.

Joel