Article:		ESR: "We Don't Need the GPL Anymore"
Subject:		luckily for MS there are no "truly free markets"
Date:		2005-07-01 11:30:20
From:		techHead
Response to: Won't be able to compete?
Window's won't always have such a large market share. In fact, very few products have ever held such a large market share w/o government enforced monopolies. In a truely free market, such a monopoply is impossible. Luckily for Microsoft such a "truly free market" doesn't obtain anywhere in the world and probably never will. Microsoft's proprietary model doesn't have to be better than open source as a way of making software. All they have to do is make it too painful to create software around an open source model. You can bet that they're spending a lot of time and money figuring out how to do that. ESR is declaring victory way too early.

Showing messages 1 through 2 of 2.

• Not so lucky for M$ there are no "truly free markets"
  2005-07-02 07:42:52  evanh [View]
  
  
  Without any regulations/enforcement, monopoly is the one sure outcome. M$ would stay completely uncontested in such an environment.
  
  
  Evan
  
• Not so lucky for M$ there are no "truly free markets"
  2005-07-12 23:14:50  bill@immosys.com [View]
  
  
  Without any regulations/enforcement, monopoly is the one sure outcome
  
  Incorrect. The only sure outcome is that the outcome is a transitory effect. Market share is not a horserace which has a defined beginning and end. It is an ongoing state of flux.
  
  Microsoft is as big and dominant as it is becuase of certain regulations that free them of certain risks. The corporation is a fiction of government that eliminates what are otherwise limiting risks.
  
  You really should do some real research on the history of monopolies. You'll find that a) they nearly always get that way through government assistance and b) by the time the government gets around to "doing something" it is usually too late - the fall has begun. Thus, the government was party to the problem, and claims to be a party to the solution when in fact it was irrelevant and at the party next door.