Should you pay for Elementary OS?

Elementary OS and payments

Elementary OS has attracted a lot of attention lately. But a controversy is brewing over how the distro developers are setting up their new site for payments by users. The Elementary OS site is being redesigned to encourage users to pay for the distro. But should the Elementary OS developers expect a payment in the first place?

The Elementary OS site explains the perspective of the developers:

We want users to understand that they’re pretty much cheating the system when they choose not to pay for software. We didn’t exclude a $0 button to deceive you; we believe our software really is worth something. And it’s not like we’re making money to buy yachts; currently the only people who have received money for working on elementary OS have been community members through our bounty program.

It’s about asking a fair price to offset the costs of development. It’s about securing the future of elementary OS to ensure we can keep making software that millions of people love and use every day.

elementary is under no obligation to release our compiled operating system for free download. We’ve invested money into its development, hosting our website, and supporting users. However, we understand the culture that currently surrounds open source: users tend to feel entitled to the full, compiled releases of software at zero cost. While we could rightfully disallow free downloads, someone else could take our open source code, compile it, and give it away for free. So there’s no point in completely disallowing it.

But we should discourage it.

More at Elementary OS

As you might imagine, the stance of the Elementary OS developers hit a nerve with Linux users on Reddit. And they weren’t shy about sharing their opinions:

Q5sys: “If you expect to be paid for your coding work, then don’t VOLUNTEER on any project.

EDIT: They have silently edited their page.

Before the edit: https://i.imgur.com/WAeS4JU.png

After the edit: https://i.imgur.com/BJ8MRlh.jpg“

Clintonswat: “Better option is to just paywall the binaries and write good documentation for bootstrapping the source. But you better be prepared for the consequences of doing that.”

Yetanothernewbie: “Feeling like they are entitled to payment for their work–totally fine by my book. They do a lot of work from scratch and there is no denying that. Wording it the way they did? Kind of obnoxious, but also incorrect. If they give the software for free, then it’s not cheating. Piracy would be cheating the system. “

Ventomareiro: “That was very badly written. Their point is that the flow in their website would explicitly make users say “no, I will not give you guys any money”. Hopefully that would make people think a bit. I agree with their goals and implementation, but ElementaryOS itself is living proof that there isn’t enough of a market in making a quality GNU/Linux distribution.”

WhyIsArt: “Most users will have various expectations of the OS, and when something breaks, they’ll be like “WTF, goddamn developer”. In other words, the user has an expectation of the developer having an obligation towards them. Is it unfair for the developer to say “if I have an obligation to you, then you have an obligation to me”?”

Devosion: “That line, along with how they have set up their download, made me not want to download or support elementary OS. And it’s not about cheating the system, it’s about supporting foss and contributing to the community. It’s the reason I downloaded Ubuntu, Crunchbang, Arch, etc. I think it’s fine that there are distributions out there that you either pay for, or can donate to, but you usually get something out of it, like personalized tech support in the case of Red Hat. The message and the way this is presented feels like they are trying to make you buy their guilt trip.

The could have also just added a recommendation to donate instead of this, and even a notification if they would like to donate before downloading wouldn’t be unheard of. But the message and the way this is done leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”

SaladWithHotDogsInIt: “They are right. I donated $10 to debian in their honor.”

More at Reddit

And there was also an even larger thread on Reddit that spawned more than six hundred comments by redditors on both sides of the issue.

Edit images on your Chromebook

Chromebook sales are red hot these days, with the devices showing up all over the place in Amazon’s list of bestselling laptops. Editing images on a Chromebook is something that many users might do frequently, but they may not be aware of just how to go about it. Linux.com has a primer on how to edit images on your Chromebook.

Swapnil Bhartiya reports for Linux.com:

In a nutshell these apps allow me to work on my images without having to go to Linux or Mac OS X boxes. I would not underrate these apps by calling them ‘basic’ image editing tools, they are way too advanced for that category. From the built-in image editing tool to Polarr, Chromebooks cover the entire spectrum of image editing – with Pixlr and Sumo Paint somewhere in middle.

There is only one caveat though. These _are_ image editing apps and thus are quite resource hungry. If you want to do some serious image editing work and are planning to buy a Chromebook, make sure to get the most powerful processor and as much RAM as you can get. Try these apps and let us know which one works best for you.

More at Linux.com

Ars Technica reviews Samsung’s Z1 Tizen smartphone

Samsung has a new phone based on its Tizen mobile operating system. Many have wondered if Samsung will eventually dump Android in favor of Tizen. But a review of the phone by Ars Technica indicates that Samsung has a long way to go with Tizen before it can consider getting rid of Android.

Ron Amadeo reports for Ars Technica:

…Tizen doesn’t have any stand-out aspect. It’s all the negatives of a new OS without any of the positives.

Tizen is just a less mature version of Android with no apps and no major ecosystem player supporting it. The OS feels like it’s straight out of that Dilbert comic where the Pointy-Haired Boss suggests “If we work day and night, we can match our competitors’ features within twelve months.” Tizen seems to have done a good job copying an OS from several years ago, but it never evolved while its competitors did. For now, the conclusion of any Tizen-based smartphone review will always say “this would have been a better product if it ran Android.”

The Good [This space intentionally left blank]

The Bad Tizen has almost no apps right now, and no one is building apps for Tizen—not even Samsung. As the creator of the OS, it’s Samsung’s job to lead the ecosystem forward. Who will support this platform when even the platform owner won’t?

More at Ars Technica

I had some thoughts of my own to share about Samsung’s Z1 smartphone on my blog:

Samsung should focus on its chip business and other profitable areas instead of vainly chasing Apple and Google in smartphones. The only real advantage Samsung had over Apple was larger screen sizes, and now that is gone forever. And anybody who wants the best Android experience possible is already running stock Android on one of Google’s phones. So what’s left for Samsung in the mobile phone market? Not a whole lot at this point, so it’s time for them to go.

I doubt Samsung will take my advice, but I think it’s just a matter of time before they are forced to realize that the jig is up and that the company’s mobile phone business isn’t bringing in the profits any more. Tizen will never be more than a second-rate afterthought with very few developers, no viable ecosystem and no real reason to exist other than to continue the ridiculous pretense that Samsung can successfully release phones without Android.

More at Jim Lynch

Did you miss a roundup? Check the Eye On Open home page to get caught up with the latest news about open source and Linux.