From: Michael Wiik (mwiik@messagenet.com)
Date: Thu Jul 19 2001 - 11:41:23 MDT
Miriam English <miriam@werple.net.au> wrote:
> The best thing that has come out of the computer industry is the
> open-source movement, which is a strange combination of socialism and
> capitalism, yet is neither. It seems to need a certain threshold of general
> wealth in which to grow, so it probably needs capitalism as its
> springboard. Some of its greatest strongholds are counties which most
> successfully combine socialism and capitalism. It has a very strong
> affinity with libertarianism, yet also with anarchist ideals and social
> responsibility. It values the individual more highly than any other system
> that I know of.
>
> I actually hope that somehow open-source will give us the model for moving
> forward into the future. I am not sure how yet, but it sure feels like it
> combines the best of all worlds.
Well said. I agree completely.
Here's my scenario: Microsoft alerts the public that, due to a mixup
involving genetically engineered corn products, that KillSwitch 1.0 Beta
(a law enforcement application, currently somewhat unstable) has
accidentally been installed in most people in the US who ate a taco in
the past few months. Unfortunately the uninstaller for KillSwitch 1.0
contains a known bug and the only fix is to overlay it with the improved
KillSwitch 3.0, after which the entire KillSwitch suite can be
uninstalled. Certain components could not be automatically uninstalled,
please see details.
I'd bet we'd see people lining up to get their KillSwitch 3.0.
-Mike
-- ====================================================================== Michael Wiik Principal Messagenet Communications Research Washington DC Area Internet and WWW Consultants http://messagenet.com mwiik@messagenet.com ======================================================================
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