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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cheryl williamson who wrote (32824)	11/7/1999 10:24:00 PM
From: Duane L. Olson	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 74651

Cheryl, I can't find much to disagree with in your approach -- except the long-standing, historical agrument about the right of property. Microsoft has an interllectual property interest in the software it has developed, and the Government should not be permitted to take away any property -- that's the argument. And that argument is backed by a constitutional clause which states that the Government cannot take private property "without just compensation".. So the constitutional question would be the fly in the ointment, as I see it, to get started on your proposal. Once past that hurdle, your proposals make excellent sense -- at least to this hasbeen systems type <G> Kudos! tso

To: cheryl williamson who wrote (32824)	11/7/1999 10:29:00 PM
From: SC	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Well I guess the downside would be that multiple variations of the OS would evolve. Some applications would run well on one variant, other applications would run well on another variant. The standardized OS would devolve into multiple standards, and we would all spend a lot more time than we already do, cruising the internet finding the drivers and other parts that we need. When someone goes to the store to buy an application they will need to be careful not to buy an application that won't run on their variant of this open source OS. Then some smart companies would come out and develop a boxed package of everything we need and sell it for $50-$100 Sort of sounds like linux (a free OS sort of like the various versions of high priced unix variants). "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." Sounds nice unfortunately, due to human nature it doesn't seem to work out. Steve