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

[doc]

> Here's a question.  How long could Capitalism (at least where software
> is concerned) last without FOSS?  In other words, FOSS ensures a free
> market for Capitalism to survive.  But does proprietary software
> really ensure the survival of a free market?  Given the nature of some
> of the companies behind proprietary software, licenses would likely
> become ever stricter and more costly.  Given that many applications
> seem to be heading down the road toward Internet-based,
> subscription-oriented services, the whole issue may be moot.  Even so
> Don

I am not sure how Free/Open Source Software (FOSS)
"ensures a free market for Capitalism to survive".

The free market is semi-free (there are no free markets
because socialist, communist, fascist, and other totalitarian
systems deliberately try to manipulate it aided by Enron-like
corrupt thinkers from capitalist economic systems) because
non-free markets always fail.

In the software market many proprietary solutions
have failed because their promoters withdrew too
much capital rather than investing it in innovation
and customer support and other products ursurped them.

Other proprietary products survive neither on customer
service nor innovation but instead on billions in
marketing and predatory anti-competitive practices.

FOSS is a subversive force within the capitalist market
(Note: The product of capitalism is the fuel that feeds
every growing nation of any economic system or philosophy
on earth.)

Foss survives because of the greed of some in the proprietary
marketplace, because large corporations are generally unable
or are unwilling to meet certain less-profitable market
segments, because some people prefer maximum local control,
because some desire or need minimal cost apps, etc.

FOSS is merely an alternative, it is not a controlling
force, nor will it ever be.

IMHO, YMMV ...

-- 
Respectfully ... dmc

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