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Re: Suggestion for Breaking Microsoft's Monopoly
de Susan Bugher 05/29/2006 05:15
Steven Burn wrote:
> Nobody likes Mr Gates' success, this is no secret. However, to force him to
> render his software OS would be a mistake for several major reasons (the
> first and primary of which would be accountability). Whom would you have
> step into MS's place?
>
> To bring this into perspective, would you have the same done to Richard
> Branson?, perhaps force him to reveal his secrets on becoming a
> billionaire?. Hand over the Virgin enterprise to people such as yourself?.
>
> Whilst we may not like it (or to be more precise, are extremely jealous of
> those with fortunes beyond our own), being selfish and arrogant enough to
> want to take that away from them is not a choice we or indeed anyone else,
> should have. Everyone is entitled to create their own fortunes - as should
> be the case.
In the US the government offers incentives or penalties to steer the
country in the direction they think it should go. That's often done via
the income tax system, sometimes it's done via the conditions the
government sets when it asks for bids for products or services.
If the US government decides "open source" and/or "free software" is
better than closed source there are many ways they could steer software
companies in that direction without *prohibiting* closed source
programs. For openers the government could buy only open source
software. Aren't some countries already doing that?
Susan
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