Why not Linux?

[Christopher Browne]

On 9/3/06, Gregory D Hough <mr6re9-mI4xJ4qlgtBiLUuM0BA3LQ at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> 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?

Illegal activities generally do earn higher levels of profits than
other activities; that's the only way for there to be an incentive to
take on the risks involved in them.

And it *is* fair to say that a lot of Canadian riches were made as a
result of US Prohibition...

> My friends, it is a viscous circle.

Circles don't have viscosity.  Only physical materials can be
viscous...  Such as water, which has a pretty low viscosity, compared
to, say, molasses, which has a higher viscosity.

>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.

It's no "greatness" if the money was earned dishonestly.

> 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?

People truly interested in Linux have a vastly more relevant mailing
list they can subscribe to:
   <http://vger.kernel.org/>
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