This is pretty typical of Cory but here’s a real world scenario that I have butted heads with today. I’m doing casual IT support for a small non-profit group and they decided some time ago to shift to the Mac platform. I understand their motivation and basically it kind of works for them but they didn’t completely embrace the Mac ideology, like many other Mac users they kept using Microsoft Office.
Now Office is a bloated piece of shit but the problem is that a large proportion of computer users in an office environment know only one way of doing something, they use Microsoft Office to write stuff, create spreadsheets, make slide shows and check their email. They could use Open Office for example and pay nothing and do everything they already do but it doesn’t feel like MS Office and it doesn’t look as glitzy as MS Office so they stay in their comfy little boxes. And they pay for it.
Ok, this is where Cory’s piece gets interesting. With cloud computing and web apps you don’t need to install an office app. Microsoft has recognised this threat to their business model and jumped on board the same bandwagon but the older business model is still alive and kicking. If you want the features of MS Office including all the bling then you have to pay for it. Don’t try cheating the system with one product key on multiple installs because MS is a wakeup to that and they check on the network for product ID packets, however the money men recognise that paying the full price is likely to be a disincentive to sales so they offer all sorts of discount prices.
But what the hell? WTF can’t I copy it? Because of the DRM/copyright philosophy is motivated by a desire to maximes profits not to facilitate my work or my creativity. Oh of course how silly. But what if Microsoft went bust because people stopped buying their crappy software? Would offices around the globe suddenly collapse in a heap? Highly unlikely, people would just adjust and life would go on but as things stand they don’t have to adjust right now because paying for things is so bloody easy!
Which is the other end of Cory’s vision. Free software as in GPL licensed open source or the creative equivalent of Creative Commons are valid for individuals who can sustain an income from somewhere else but the software industry model espoused by Microsoft is still highly dependent on selling units of something, in the case of Office its a serial number that validates with Microsoft. And a goodly proportion of the western world is addicted to the Office interface.
What is really bizarre is the fact that a free alternative like Open Office is often sneered at by the same people who embrace the Microsoft bloatware who in turn scour the net and expect creative work from people like Cory to be free. In other words, the market place for ideas is distorted by the monopoly power that Microsoft exerts on people’s capacity to pay. Surely it is more desirable to have money going to creativity than propping up the Microsoft empire, especially when the latter is based on illegal foundations. It’s a bit of a paradigm shift but it would have significant implications for the way we live as human beings.
