Thinking Past Platforms: the Next Challenge for Linux

"The Linux community also has to get past the belief that Linux is mostly an alternative to other OSes. The Windows vs. Mac choice is between two silos that both do their best to lock customers in and maximize the dependencies of developers on proprietary platform SDKs and the like. Linux is not an alternative to any platform. It is an alterative to platforms themselves. It is the path to an open marketplace, not just another silo.

There's a great series of fake ads that Novell has put together recently, each a parody of the Apple ads where two guys represent a PC and a Mac. In these ads, Linux shows up in the form of a smart and attractive young woman. It's a brilliant twist away from the usual penguin representation. But it still makes the mistake of portraying Linux just as an alternative to other operating systems. It still lets Microsoft and Apple set conceptual limits for what you can do with a PC." -- Read more | Digg it

I extremely recommend reading and understanding this article. This is why I am usually vary of calling ourselves "(GNU/)Linux Advocates". What's the point of that? It is advocating the use of just another operating system. No wonder people start dismissing all that as pointless OS wars. We shouldn't advocate GNU/Linux as an operating system, but merely as an example of what comes from the real thing that needs to be propagated: a completely free, open, modular and open ended way of making software and technology: a new way of thinking about technology, a paradigm shift.