I see the open sourced software versus proprietary software question in
the way I see toll roads versus public roads.

Roads are necessary for life and business, they have been around for quite
a while, lots of people worked to make them and keep them open and
passable, some volunteered, some were volunteered, and others got paid.
Some are toll roads, most are not, as most were built from *tax* money
spent as military or government expenditure (and as such have been paid
for, by the work of honest taxpayers many times over, and should not be
sell-able either to companies or to individuals, nor should they be used
to levy additional taxes in the form of a toll, or other governmental
money-making schemes).

What the proprietary software supporters are trying to do, is to make all
roads toll roads, because theirs is a toll road, and because (so they
claim) all roads resemble theirs in design (which they consistently failed
to prove so far - the design pattern - the POSIX standards among others in
this case - being in the public domain just like any public road), and
because they would greatly benefit from everyone else being forced to do
things the way they do them, knowing full well that one needs roads to be
able to travel.  And they would like to sell this idea to a democratic
assembly in the country that says it's the freeest (sp?) of all. You know
what ? I don't think so.

Peter

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList
mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu