Office applications Toolkit

Story: It's not the Gates, it's the bars

• 
• 

Richard you too will have a lot to answer for!

Richard is an ideologist, some might say socialist, capitalism has existed in one form or another since time began.

Microsoft as it has grown and like any big corporate can become aggressive to survive to feed itself. Just think of AT&T, it was broken up for being an aggressive monopoly and IBM nearly got broken up for its business practices.

Every industry has it's story to tell, just look at the Retail, Textile and Oil industries.

But people did have a choice they did not have to buy Microsoft products. Richard could argue that Microsoft squashed a lot of competitors but companies did not have to buy their products. To be honest some of their products have been better than the competition and others worst. Typically of any company.

It is all down to marketing and how well the advert convinces people to buy the product, no one is twisting their arm to buy.

I am not being naive about Microsoft, I am no fan of theirs, I have been involved in computing for 30 years and have seen it all.

Microsoft has provided employeement for hundreds of thousands of people and many more by other companies reselling their products or by providing add ons.

Free software is a slow growing cancer within the industry as it is altering the way people obtain software, it is becoming more of vehicle for services and hardware. No wonder IBM, Sun and others want to get behind it, they want to sell more hardware and services on the back of other peoples free efforts. Where is the ethics in that Richard?

Some might say Redhat has grown into a monoply for Linux on the back of non-paid people. They have not had to fund the developement of Linux from day one.

Richard says that free is a benefit for everybody but what about the companies who are trying to provide a living for their employees and are now having to compete with companies who are selling 'Free' software. Surley this is anti-competitive and should be stopped. I cannot walk into McDonalds and ask for a 'free' Big Mac!

At a time when there are fewer students applying for Computer Science courses at Universities I can see that free software will eventually be the major reason reducing the numbers again. When they finish their degree where will all the software companies be to give them a job if free software continues to gain traction?

Sorry Richard, you will be known for the person killed the software industry and not the father of free software.

• 
• 

• 
• 
• 

Full Talkback thread