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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>>…</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Omar Rahman<br><br><b><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>>…</span></b><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'>most of the Silicon Valley jillionaires are driving good things into<br>reality<span style='color:#1F497D'>…</span>spike</span><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>…</span><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>Gates is an interesting case for me because I can remember back in the old anti-trust days when Microsoft was making serious moves to be the only viable OS and I thought that Microsoft was a company that really needed reigning in<span style='color:#1F497D'>…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>So I recall, but I had an alternate spin on that then, based on an extrapolation of some comments Eugen made.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>If one guy gets a corner on the word processor market as Microsloth did back in about y2k, his failed competitors say that this one guy might as well have a patent on the English language. Once one word processor gets established, it forever eliminates any possibility for anyone else to come along later with a viable competitor. But this is OK, for what ended up happening is that Java Open Office came along, which is free, and is compatible with Word. Over the years I have noticed that Microsloth never did make Word incompatible with existing Open Office Writer. So now if we want all the bells and whistles of Word, we have that option. If not, we have that option. So the market did reign in Microsoft in that sense. It created a very competent free alternative, which can open Word formatted documents, but not write Word formatted documents.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>There is a free Open Office analog of Excel called Calc. That one isn’t as good as Excel, but I have used it for sharing spreadsheets with people who don’t use Excel. It works if you don’t abuse it the way I do Excel on a regular basis.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>In the case of operating systems and mail programs, having one dominant competitor forms a negative feedback in the form of a cherry red hot target for virus writers. A monoculture with no alternatives would be an invitation to create chaos. Consequently alternatives came into existence, possibly less capable but free. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span> Now they have backed off from that hegemonist stance and Gates is saving thousands, perhaps millions, of lives with his foundation<span style='color:#1F497D'>…</span>Gates is a good guy these days basically, but we shouldn't forget that he almost took over the (computing) world<span style='color:#1F497D'>…</span>Regards,<span style='color:#1F497D'> </span>Omar Rahman<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Ja. The argument goes that no one can take over the computing world, for any attempt creates a market for free alternatives, some of which are really good, as we saw.</span><span style='color:#1F497D'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Our current USA medical struggles suggest that we need a parallel competing system of some sort, analogous to Microsloth competitors such as Red Hat, arguably less capable but at much lower cost.</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>spike <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div></body></html>