I support open source and will use it as my
preferred platform. However, when open source fails to deliver then users
cannot be blamed for using proprietary solutions.

In the case of Virtualbox, not being able to use usb devices is a real
handicap. The developers of the open source version need to step up and
deliver if they want it to be used. If it is Sun's plan to keep the OS
version at a disadvantage then it is working and it is time for someone to
fork Virtualbox OSE and make it worth installing.

If someone spends $500 for an nVidia card and they can only get 2D basic
functionality from the open source NV driver, then can they be blamed for
using the proprietary driver? I think not. The challenge is for open source
to be as good as or better than. Anyone can deliver second rate. This is
where strident and inflexible open source advocates fall down. No wonder
because most of them stare at a terminal all day and still use EMACS. Then
they urge users to choose mediocre solutions when better ones are available
and then wonder why people do not follow their lead.

There is an interesting conversation going on now in many forums and in the
blogosphere. Basically it is would you hire Richard Stallman and the FSF to
do PR for Linux? Sorry, that should read GNU/Linux. The results are a
resounding no. RMS does not represent the average user, but only the geek
fringe who is who he plays to. Unfortunately for him and fortunately for the
rest of us, that is a minority opinion that grows less daily.

As for Ubuntu's policy, it is full of hypocrisy. They ship with Mono and
Mono is not GPLed. No part of it is under the GPL. It is under various
licenses with varying degrees of incomprehensibility and confusion. Nobody
knows its status, including Novell. Even the developer, Miguel de Icaza has
taken swipes at Microsoft for not backing Mono and making it clear.
Microsoft alleges that we are using their Intellectual Property but won't
say what it is. Mono is a Trojan Horse, if ever there was one and Microsoft
is laughing all the way to the bank.