Re: [News] Explaining the Roots of Success of the GNU GPL, Free Software
"Linonut" <linonut@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:dAsdj.55284$L%6.8793@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
* Roy Schestowitz fired off this tart reply:
Quote for the day:
"If a company fails to demonstrate serious charity that is not directly
connected to its core business, one can fairly suspect that ?charitable?
donations such as Microsoft?s software gifts are more about marketing and
illegal economic dumping than about civicness. Add in monopoly deals like
the
Indiana and Texas university systems and you have a pattern of aggressive
product dumping that merits full investigation by all legal authorities."
--Nathan Newman
How much of this goes on? How does it compare to what Apple did (still
does?)
Clearly it is all in the eyes of the beholder and depends on whose ox is
gored. Giving away free samples is a classic sales gimmick and educational
discounts or even donations are all part of the same thing. The world's
offices run on Microsoft Windows and office automation products. If a
school has any concern at all, they will want their graduates to be prepared
for the environment that society has created and knowing how to run Windows
computers and use Microsoft Office programs is a real part of that
preparation. Getting the goods for a song is a gift that the schools cannot
pass up. That Apple Macs still dominate the commercial art world is proof
that it is a great strategy. Linux cannot hope to compete because it lacks
the ability to pull through, since no one now uses it, and it lacks any
ability to push, since there is no promotional money available. That is a
fatal flaw, by the way, and assigns Linux to an early grave vis-a-vis the
desktop.
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