[mdlug] Soviet Microsoft

[Aaron Kulkis]

Michael Corral wrote:
> 2007-12-16, Monsieur Michael Rudas a ecrit:
>> "Soviet Microsoft: How Resistance to Free Markets and Open Ideas Will
>> Unravel the Software Superpower"
>> <http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2007/12/13/soviet-microsoft-how-resistance-to-free-markets-and-open-ideas-will-the-unravel-the-software-superpower>
> 
> What a crock of feces that article is.
> 
> Most of the "free market" crowd in fact loves Microsoft. They are,
> according to them, a shining example of how the "free market" rewards
> those "entrepreneurs", like Gates, who have the "vision" and "gumption"
> to start from a small-time operation and become wealthy. Microsoft is
> not in any way trying to form a "planned economy", gimme a break.
> George W. Bush and his ilk (i.e. rabid right-wing anti-Communists)
> *love* Microsoft (notice how they called off the DOJ from nailing MS).

Which is merely evidence that most of the pro-free-market
crowd has been successfully propagandized by Microsoft,
NOT that the article is wrong.

Eric S. Raymond (a pro-free market libertarian) makes
many of the same arguments concerning Microsoft being
VERY adverse to competing in a true free market.


> 
> That article is just absurd. When you have to resort to crude appeals
> to anti-Communism to argue against *Microsoft* (!), you know your
> arguments are weak. What's funny to me is how much of an Apple fanboy
> the guy is, when Apple is in many ways even *worse* than Microsoft
> when it comes to vendor lock-in and restricting choice. At least MS
> allows you to install their crummy OS on any kind of PC, while Apple
> only lets you install their OS on their hardware. Hell, even Sun lets
> you install Solaris on any PC. So all in all, that guy's an idiot.
> 

I think your fondness for socialism has clouded your
understanding of Stallman's point.

> Michael