Tom,

>>Gerry,
>>
>>>>I tend to agree.. And here's a case where the open source movement can help. It all comes down to the numbers of eyeballs and brains looking at and examining source code and by any estimation the 'free market' approach where more eyeballs & brains is better then fewer eyeballs & brains will always win out in terms of finding the highest quality.
>>>>
>>>>It's a simple mathematical exercise IMO..
>>>
>>>And many of those eyeballs belong to people who enjoy what they are doing; it's not just a "job".
>>
>>Oh, you bet, although I tend to think that most of the folks at Microsoft in the various development teams would have the same level of satisfaction in their jobs as well. Look, we're a unique breed... <g>
>>
>>I still think that MSFT is a great company and puts out a pretty good product. It has to be hard, particularly when you've come to expect successes, to keep your 'edge'. The open sores ..errr.. source <g> movement will do that I think.
>>
>>It is my fond hope that the market will once again speak and both Linux and Microsoft will prosper by virtue of the competition. We all benefit in that case...
>
>Doug;
>
>Many think competition is key to success in the computer industry. Having competition between a few key players is a good idea IMO. I would not like to see "fragmented" competition - like a dozen or more OS for the PC, etc.

I think that this is a sort of unique issue for the computer industry. In the auto industry, for example, if you don't like one mfg's car you go to another. In the computer industry that'd be like having 3-4 different 'types' of roads, fuel, tires, etc. where the parts weren't too interchangeable.

I think this point is often lost on the so-called anti-monopolists in government.


>
>Now, whatever happened to IBM's OS 2 and Apple? How soon we forget and all that!
>
>Tom

Right.. They still work but who would want to run a business on VisiCalc? <g>