rjack <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Let's state the irony of the situation in plainer terms. The so-called > "success" of the GPL that Free Software advocates like to claim is > actually the quickest path to defeat under Microsoft's rule.
> The socialist "Free Software" dream of eliminating proprietary software > (think Microsoft) is an utter, abject failure. Despite a constant > drumbeat extolling the success of the GPL by Free Software advocates for > the past FIFTEEN YEARS, Microsoft happily rolls on to the tune of $5.9 > billion net income last quarter. Do I care? More power to them [1], if they find people willing to buy their wares. The great success of Free and Open Source Software and the GPL in particular is that since many years there exists a viable (and in many respects high-class) alternative to proprietary software. I have not had a Microsoft product on my computer since the mid-nineties. In the 90s, I still had to use a colleagues PC occasionally to handle a Excel, Word, or CorelDraw file. In the last 5 years, this was not necessary anymore. *That* is the power and success of Free Software: it has opened the Golden Door and the masses yearning to breathe free can liberate themselves. That the proprietary software business model will get a Darwin Award eventually is just a happy corollary ;-) regards Geza [1] I may find their products objectionable, and I would not choose to work for them. But as long as they respect the laws, they are welcome to compete. Unfortunately, it seems that more often than not, they choose to compete by straining or breaking the law... -- Geza Giedke Max-Planck Institut fuer Quantenoptik, Garching _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list gnu-misc-discuss@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
