On Wed, 31 Oct 2001 12:46:51 -0800, Robert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I believe your right as I read it. Still a hassle I can buy one copy of Linux
> and copy to two desktops and trying to copy to my laptop for $60 while it
> cost at least $100 for the upgrade for one machine.
>
> Then I have to keep getting permission everytime I move to a different or
> make substantial upgrades.
>
> Here is another point too. The hardware upgrade is obvious in favor of
> vendors who are hurting during these financial times. If you can run Linux on
> old hardware and get as good or even better performance don't you think this
> keeps Linux out since vendor make money on selling their hardware? Amazon
> saved themselves some serious cash with HP's hardware and Linux software with
> only a few MS around for whatever reason. Technically, this means that they
> can keep their hardware and software going longer compared to MS,
> SunMicrosystem, etc. Doesn't that hurt the hardware vendors since they may
> not make enough to service the equipment compared to selling newer hardware
> to old and new customers. The OS won't be a problem to customers since they
> can upgrade and adapt Linux to whatever they want or may need.
>
> If anyone can enlighten me on this business side of Linux I would appreciate
> it very much.
Hardware vendors have been in alliance with MS for some years now, and together
they strong-arm consumers into buying new hardware to run the latest version of
Windows and Office. In economic terms, this is a gross misallocation of
resources, and ties companies (the consumers) down so that they cannot compete
and innovate effectively. On the other side, MS and its allies (the producers)
become rich and store vast amounts of money in bank accounts (MS has about $US30
billion in the bank), where it does nothing. They dont need to compete, and so
they are expensive, inefficient and complacent.
With GNU/Linux, companies can spend far less resources on IT, so they have more
money to spend on development and on competing effectively. This ultimately
benefits the economy and consumers with better products and lower prices. In
other words, GNU/Linux shifts market power from the producers to the consumers,
which according to Western neoclassical economics should produce a favourable
outcome.
There we go - (Western) Economics 101 applied to the IT industry :)
--
Sridhar Dhanapalan
The dark ages were caused by the Y1K problem.
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Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
