Why not Linux?

[Gregory D Hough]

Dave Cramer wrote:
> 
> On 3-Sep-06, at 7:46 PM, James Knott wrote:
> 
>> Gregory D Hough wrote:
>>
>>> Rick Tomaschuk wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Sun, 2006-09-03 at 13:29 -0400, Colin McGregor wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> While legally/morally questionable tactics have a real
>>>>> (major?) role to play in the domination of the
>>>>> industry by one player, there are other factors.
>>>>> Another "joke" from times gone by was "Nobody ever
>>>>> gets fired for choosing IBM". Point was, if an IT
>>>>> professional picked a solution from say Burroughs over
>>>>> IBM, and things went bad, the chances of getting fired
>>>>> were much higher than picking an IBM solution.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I just don't want to be the poor SOB responsible for installing,
>>>> maintaining, patching, de-virus, de-spyware...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> You can punish individuals for breaking the law, and
>>>>> the thought of Bill Gates being REQUIRED to wear an
>>>>> orange jumpsuit has a certain appeal. As for
>>>>> corporations, the best you can hope to do is force
>>>>> them to reform, this can be done by breaking them up
>>>>> and/or  other legal actions, such as forced sale of
>>>>> assets. Now, I don't know of any ideal solution for
>>>>> Microsoft, but here are some ideas:
>>>>> - Make the source code to all Microsoft products open
>>>>> source under a BSD or GPL licence.
>>>>> - Require Microsoft OSs become a seperate company from
>>>>> the other parts.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I don't believe Microsoft will ever be forced by Government to  change
>>>> since to many they are a 'rags to riches' (sort of) story.
>>>> Government intervention will be seen as excessive state control  which
>>>> many will take offense to. The best we can hope for is a co- ordinated
>>>> effort to match them in every market to take away their 'oxygen' as
>>>> their managers refer to it and drive margins down to the point  they 
>>>> are
>>>> unable to be profitable. Quite frankly its good to have a large  
>>>> window$
>>>> installed base. It will be a huge segment needing an upgrade in the
>>>> future.
>>>> RickT
>>>
>>> Why must y'all continuously slam the world's greatest  philanthropist in
>>> his finest hour?
>>
>>
>> Perhaps because of the often illegal means he used to obtain that his
>> wealth.
> 
> That seems to be the norm, consider much of the Canadian, and US  wealth 
> was created out of the days when alcohol was illegal.

Those are very simplistic arguments which presume that illegal 
activities often earn greater profits. But what is so illegal about the 
worlds greatest philanthropist medicating the third world with 
experimental drugs from profits earned by the distribution of diseased 
software?

My friends, it is a viscous circle. Nobody is perfect but God has seen 
to it that each one of us is perfectly suited for something good. We all 
have an opportunity to redeem ourselves from the wrongs we have 
perpetrated against one another. It just so happens that the world's 
greatest philanthropist has a much bigger Bill to pay.

I just think it is more appropriate on a Linux list to discuss the 
goodness of our chosen OS than to be forever putting down the "other 
guy." It makes us all look bad in the eyes of potential converts. Hasn't 
anyone noticed all the misguided UNSUBSCRIBERS lately?

greg

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