I agree with bad_user that they care implicitly. They care when Oracle is gouging them at $40-70k when it could be free to $5k. They didn't like Microsoft taking away their start button, which was easy to bring back for FOSS GUI. Many didn't want to spend much on a computer for basic tasks, which Linix distros on Netbooks helped with. Many wanted more or specific applications for their smartphones, which Android lets you have. Many want their OS to not spy on them like Windows 10 does, which requires being able to inspect or modify it.
So, they care. They just rarely see it put in terms they understand. Whenever I do, they always support the alternative even if they won't buy it occasionally due usually to backward compatibility with locked-in stuff (eg Office, Oracle, SAP) Stallman warned about or just their personal preference (eg iPhone over Android).
"If the aim was to make software that's easily user-modifiable - user-modifiable, not developer-modifiable - free software has been a complete failure."
Yeah, that's true. It also, as you note later, hasn't been easily developer-modifiable either with how they write it. One of reasons for LLVM's existence was how much of a pain it was to work with GCC. And all kinds of people want to improve FOSS software but few can or do. The dream and reality are quite different.
I agree with bad_user that they care implicitly. They care when Oracle is gouging them at $40-70k when it could be free to $5k. They didn't like Microsoft taking away their start button, which was easy to bring back for FOSS GUI. Many didn't want to spend much on a computer for basic tasks, which Linix distros on Netbooks helped with. Many wanted more or specific applications for their smartphones, which Android lets you have. Many want their OS to not spy on them like Windows 10 does, which requires being able to inspect or modify it.
So, they care. They just rarely see it put in terms they understand. Whenever I do, they always support the alternative even if they won't buy it occasionally due usually to backward compatibility with locked-in stuff (eg Office, Oracle, SAP) Stallman warned about or just their personal preference (eg iPhone over Android).
"If the aim was to make software that's easily user-modifiable - user-modifiable, not developer-modifiable - free software has been a complete failure."
Yeah, that's true. It also, as you note later, hasn't been easily developer-modifiable either with how they write it. One of reasons for LLVM's existence was how much of a pain it was to work with GCC. And all kinds of people want to improve FOSS software but few can or do. The dream and reality are quite different.