I listened to a recent episode of the Linux Action Show podcast the other day (s9e4), and in that episode the hosts Bryan and Chris really lost touch with reality.

First they started ranting about how “the Linux Desktop” needs an eco system for proprietary closed-source applications. They claimed that we cannot make good quality software entirely open source, that open source products and tools won’t be as good as proprietary ones. They apparently decided that the reason there’s a lack of some tools (notable example that these guys like to bring up: video editors) is that the creators of these tools don’t make them proprietary so that they can sell them.

Of course they had nothing to back up their claims but a few random guesses from their behalf.

Then, after that whole weird segment that seemed to be taken out of the blue, Bryan strikes with announcing how he intends to improve the linux desktop environment by start selling two proprietary tools to the world to show that it can be done and yada yada.

I mean, this guy has never done any particular open source or free software contribution of significance. It’s not like he even tried to contribute and make a living off of something related. They decided that others have tried and failed, so he shall not.

The two tools he now sell are two minor tools that will prove nothing about how proprietary programs can or cannot survive on the Linux market. If he fails to sell enough to make a living it just says nobody wanted his niche products well enough (or that he asks too much money for them), and in case he does get money from the products to make a decent living it is not a proof that he couldn’t have made a business case for an open source version.

These are two guys who tend to praise linux and open source and everything in episode after episode. In my view, the open source world has proven over and over again that it is capable of producing and making just about anything to a quality that matches and surpasses those of the proprietary closed-source world. These guys just happen to come to a conclusion that this concept doesn’t work exactly at the same time when one of them decides it’s time to sell proprietary linux software?

I say hypocrites.