[CS-FSLUG] Proprietary Software: Capitalism or Greed?

[Timothy Butler]

>
> Isn't this exactly the same scenario where Microsoft started (except
> that they were not hardware vendors..) -> people liked their Windows
> operating system, they became a monopoly and now (because of greed?)
> they try to force the whole industry under their control? :)


I think it had more to do with people liking MS-DOS (or finding it  
tolerable). Microsoft then used its monopoly power (or oligopoly  
power) to move people to Windows. Note, though, this has nothing to  
do with whether the software is proprietary or not and everything to  
do with the company behind it.

Mac OS has been around longer than Windows, it just hasn't had the  
same market position that Windows has had.

The big problem, IMO, is that people are cheap. Even with it being  
illegal, people are salivating at the idea of putting Mac OS X on a  
generic PC that costs less than a Mac. If people paid for the things  
they valued, Apple could make Mac OS X entirely FOSS and still  
survive just fine.

And, just think if everyone who used GNU/Linux paid a fair price to  
their favorite distributor...

	-Tim


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Timothy R. Butler | "Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in.
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