"On that same front, Gary's right about that last 20%. But user-facing software has a much harder last 20% than what happens behind the scenes _because_ those occult tools are allowed to be very focused, tight, and single purpose, whereas user-facing tools have to handle, ameliorate, shunt, faciliate the myriad things a general intelligence can/will do. User facing tools have to deal with morons and geniuses, whereas internal tools can get away with well-defined contracts."
Although there is open source software for office and accounting, I can't imagine wanting to spend my free time on such a thing. It is just boring and depressing to think about. I don't think it has anything to do with it being hard. Hard is New Horizons.. Meanwhile, as Gary points out, the commercial World of Boring circles the wagons around music streaming and participation in mobile app markets, banking, and other such things so that they can control prices. The software is coupled to the protocols and one would have to buy-in (with $$$) to see how the pieces fit together and make free alternatives. What a hassle. Marcus ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
