"Is the government qualified to design operating systems?
Is the government able to identify and correctly predict
future trends in technology which make these steps necessary? "
Well,
The government doesn't design airplanes either but it regulates air travel. Nor does it design HDTV but it regulates communications,.. the list goes on.
The government also has pumped billions of dollars into the computer and communications market via DOD,DOE, NASA, NSF and other spending; so I think they have something to say here. After all, a lot of what we take for granted was a research project a one time, which was given to corporations for free. Since I pay a lot of taxes (I hope you do too), I like to see that money benefit me a little more. One of those ways is to provide a more competitive software market.
As to OS design. Do you really know what you are talking about here? The real question should be, is MS qualified to design operating systems: DOS was bought, Windows copied from the OS/2 presentation manager effort, NT borrowed from DEC.
Finally, no one is able to correctly predict the future. Nonetheless, we all have our job to do in the present. The DOJ has to enforce anti-trust laws, thats what they are doing.
Thure |
