On Apr 6, 2005 8:35 PM, Josh Coates <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > this is what makes the US economy strong, that and a population of 300M > wealthy (globally relative) producers and consumers doesn't hurt.
The big three can't sell trucks to people who can't afford to buy them. THAT is what makes the US economy strong. Would the Internet Archive project (www.archive.org) be able to be run as cheaply as possible or maybe even as a non-profit organization at all if it wasn't powered by Linux, Apache, PHP, and Perl? Would Berkeley Data Systems (www.berkeleydata.net) take a hit monetarily if the website wasn't powered by Linux, Apache, Perl, OpenSSL, and PHP? > sorry, but the fact that google runs linux or IBM supports apache or a small > handful of people (ie. 10's of thousands) regularly use emacs doesn't make a > nano-difference to the US economy. I'm sure Google contributes greatly to the economy of Mountain View, CA, as well as surrounding areas. If Google didn't run their corporation on Linux could they be as profitable as they are?? So the local economy of CA doesn't impact the US economy?? The _United_ States economy is strong because the local economies of it's cities is strong. Being a local elected official, this is the way I see it work every day. If a majority of my citizen's personal economy isn't strong, the economy of my city isn't strong. If a majority of the cities located in Utah don't have strong economies, then Utah doesn't have a strong economy. I think you see by now where I'm going with this. So if OSS disappeared tomorrow, would the sky fall? No. Would the stock market take a hit? You bet. Could it recover? Probably. However, to say that little things don't make a nano-difference to the economy doesn't ring true with me. They've made a difference to the companies you've been affiliated with, haven't they? > don't get me wrong, i'm all for open source, and it's certainly had a > positive effect on our careers and personal economics - but let's try to > stay grounded. ;-) So the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts? -- Thad Van Ry .===================================. | This has been a P.L.U.G. mailing. | | Don't Fear the Penguin. | | IRC: #utah at irc.freenode.net | `==================================='
