What would you say if there was a way to support your favorite OS or X11 Desktop Environment by agreeing to use an ad-sponsored version? The ad would show *only once*, during the load of the OS or graphics desktop environment, something like a splash screen, and then it would go away after 5 or 10 seconds or if you manually close its window or after you have clicked to the actual ad. This way, you could be helping financially open source projects, like Gnome, KDE, FreeBSD, Gentoo and others. Part of the deal, of course, it would be that the ads in question will not be intrusive, disturbing or spying on you, they would not be massive and CPU/memory hungry (if in e.g. Flash), however, they would be allowed to download new ads every few days and possibly store them locally. A few other details of course will need to be cleared out. Some may say that “ads do not work”. Well, these OSS projects have nothing to lose. If the idea won’t work, well, it won’t work. Life will go on as it did before.
However, would an ad-sponsored environment be against the Free Software or OSI or BSD philosophy, or it would merely be a way to help your favorite project and help it financially to pay for testing hardware, web servers, CVS servers, even “marketing” etc. Naturally, if you are a bit capable with C/C++, you could freely recompile the OSS project and remove the ad splash screen – but how ethical that would be?
Ideas like these, at first might not sound very sexy, but let’s face it: if Lindows was doing something like this instead of that US$99 Click-n-Run thing, they would have today more credibility among the Linux community. Opera seems to do well with ad-sponsoring too, and in fact, their ads are not intrusive at all (especially if you shuffle the toolbars around the ad, so you utilize the available space better).
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Since you posted from Microsoft.com, I’ll answer.
First, MS seems to be trying hard to improve its products and XP should be a lot better than its forerunners…
On the other hand, that company where you work is smashing the competition. MS is too aggressive sometimes; in other cases, the competition is technically proficient, but lacking in the management department.
If we allow this to continue, MS will eventually be the only single remaining corporation in the OS business — not only in the USA, which is scary to other US companies, but in the whole world.
And then, our freedom will be dependent on Microsoft’s interests. Some of us are afraid of that.
That is basically why, IMHO.
Thanks.
I understand that OS projects need funding. This is not the way. I am sick of being bombarded by advertising that assaults my 1) morals, 2) intelligence, 3) good sense, 4) all of the above. I absolutely will not install software that ads me! Microsoft is bad enough, charging what they do. Linux, if projects start assaulting users with ads, will look no better to corporate users than MS$. This is a terrible idea! Offer support packages. Get big corporate sponsors to advertise on the project’s websites. Do *not* touch my computer. I will resent it.
this could be very much helpful for funding open source projects, but if the ad is being put on the user’s desktop he would be very much annoyed and rather switch to a “non-ad based” os. so better it can be displayed during booting as most ppl (including me) boot only once a day! 😉
Ads are infesting EVERYTHING these days. DVDs, movies at the theatre, roadsides, newspapers, the web, EVERYWHERE. I use Mozilla/Galeon to remove ads from the web, I haven’t been to a movie in weeks, I don’t even HAVE television, I cancelled my newpaper subscription, so, NO fscking way will I even CONSIDER an OS with ads built in. I will wait until my PC dies from old age if this occurs.
Plastering the OS with adds is not on. Something like the startup screen/logo and small banner ad, like Opera allready uses, would be unobtrusive enough.
Have you seen the ads in “Minority Report” nobody really wants that sort of forced advertising on their computer screen. You can imagine, your working or about to blow somebody away in Quake III, and an ad obscures your screen trying to sell you, by name, perfumed soap and enima’s.
OS developers could set standards and restrict the advertisments down to unobtrusive but effective. Advertisers may not appreciate it but in the long run it will do them good, as people are more likely to buy from targeted unobtrusive ads then ads they are “desperately” used to ignoring. This is not TV, it is a work environment, even in TV they don’t run banner ads accross the middle of the screen and commercials every scene change, they have more sense.
While I understand the need for money in all projects and do not begrudge people trying to make money, those I feel are worthy enough I’ll donate to or buy. I don’t necessarily go looking for a free ride and am happy to contribute (not much – but enough) for those projects I deem worthwhile. The need for money however should not bring commercialism to our desktops, last waning bastion as they are, and on open source projects especially I find disgusting which on principle I will not accept.
It’s not the way, projects built on goodwill and sharing should be able to operate in like manner.
Opera is a commercial product, I have no major problem with the ads they show, if we’re going to be subjected to them they should be done their way and only at that in commercial products. It’s been said elsewhere that if people pay they want ads turned off but for open source, asides from the edit+recompile problem I would still think twice because on principle it isn’t a product I’d want..
Furthermore I can forsee a twighlight zone scenario, maybe you only put the ads on at startup but how long before you have ads when you type in your login password for your distribution, once for x windows, again for kde, your word processor, your code editor, your gui file manager? Are you going to recompile them all? Everyone could want some of the ad revenue pie and *snap* open source as a concept is more akin to TV (which I don’t even posess) and your computer is as much ore more in the hands of others than if you were using XP except you don’t even know _who_ is copying animated gif’s onto your computer and you can’t “trust” everyone to act responsibly re: spyware. Unlikely, or the start of the slippery road? This is Doom-Mongering perhaps but it’s an example of the problems that could only work to destroy the open source concept.