Re: Should the Fed Gov break up Microsoft?

[Frank Carney <frankc@cyberhighway.net>]

Phoenyx wrote:
> 
> Many of the open source projects are now funded by large
> corporations. Then you have the companies like Red Hat, they

Okay, what about all those guys that started it in the first place? 
Corporations funded them to do work other than writing Linux code (they
have a job).  They wrote it because they wanted something better or
loved writing it or they hate M$ or ...

> 
> The benefit to the Linux/BSD open source is for in-house
> programmers who need to tweak the system for their own
> purposes.

This is true, but there is more to this.  You get all your tools for
free.  You can install it on as many machines as you want.  You can do
things other OSes simply CANNOT do.  For instance when was the last time
you saw NT running on an Amiga or a Mac 68k?

> 
> Now, I am a big fan of the open source concept. It just
> hasn't made it big in the general public and is rapidly

So, most people do not know there is a nuclear isotope in smoke
detectors, but they use them and do not care.  Your ISP is probably
running some sort of Unix somewhere, do you care?

> being swallowed up by the corporations. To some degree, this

The concept is not being swallowed.  It is being embraced.  Corps know
that if they do not, they will die.  

Prediction:  There will be a window manager for XFree86 at some point
that supports Win 32 apps.  If it is made by M$ or someone else, that
will be M$'s call.

> 
> All I care about is being able to use it on my home network
> and being able to download any upgrades from the web.

Exactly, how many times have you gotten the next version of Windows or
MacOS (not including pre SSW 7.0.1) for free off the web?