Quote:
|
Originally Posted by philip.j.fry
Have a look at the Free Software Foundation and see what is meant by free, the licence it (i.e the Kernel) is distributed under does not preclude charging for it, so people may make money off of it.
|
You can still download it for free. They only charge for support services.
Quote:
|
I think your analysis of what would happen if MS were to pull out of Europe isn't particularly likely. The more probable situation would be that there would be a time of readjustment, which would be a huge desruption, while all existing MS products are replaced with alternatives.
|
Like what? Good luck. The unwashed masses will have to switch to Macs or Linux, both with limited software. "What do you mean I can't run World of Warcraft on my Mac?"
Lets get real. It would be a disaster. It would hurt both Microsoft and the people.
Quote:
|
Because of the vacumn created, a hell of a lot more research would be done, improving them for use in everyday life. I.e, Linux on the desktop would be sped up a lot.
|
True, but how long is that going to take? 3 years? 5 years?
Quote:
|
Arguing that, I can see that it is bad to have a homogeous environment where one product dominates because of the dangers if that product dissapears/develops a major fault. It is exactly those resons why I think that a controlled market is better than free trade. From my perspective I believe that free trade only serves in the long run to stifle cooperation and creativity and reduces consumer choice.
|
This has nothing to do with free trade. Trade and the market are completely separate concepts. You're advocating a controlled market, which has proved time and time again that
it does not work. If it did, the USSR would still exist. If you want to turn to controlled markets and controlled economies (communism), fine. I don't. I'm a FREE market entrepeneur.