[ExI] Warren Buffett is worried too and thinks Republicans are "asinine"

[spike]

>. On Behalf Of Omar Rahman



>.most of the Silicon Valley jillionaires are driving good things into
reality.spike

.

 

>.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.

 

So I recall, but I had an alternate spin on that then, based on an
extrapolation of some comments Eugen made.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.  

 

>. Now they have backed off from that hegemonist stance and Gates is saving
thousands, perhaps millions, of lives with his foundation.Gates is a good
guy these days basically, but we shouldn't forget that he almost took over
the (computing) world.Regards,  Omar Rahman

 

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. 

 

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.

 

spike  

 

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