Microsoft is Dead

FACT: Your second fact is actually an opinion.

I can't understand why MS is so hated vis-a-vis Apple. I've had a software made for Win 3.1 run on Win-XP, but a device driver had to be updated so that my wife's MAC-book could identify the printer. Why is there any reason to think that a monopoly under Apple would be better than one under MS (in the 90s)?

The reason why Google rocks is that its not a monopoly. It makes chunkloads of money and then some more. But it does not have a 96% market share of search or maps or video or any other service. And its the same reason why Yahoo or Amazon or Ebay rock. They are leaders and profitable and everything that 90s-MS was, but they aren't monopolies.

My comment is from the point of view of a consumer, not a competitor... so this isn't really a reply to the original post.

I think this is a little bit ironic. One of Paul's YCombinator companies, Loopt.com is using Microsoft/IIS 6.0 and Paul has been touting them to be one of the best of his startup investments. I agree with you on this one Paul, Loopt.com is the only one that is actually doing something real.

Another startup that just caught Techcrunch attention (and apparently got financed because the company has a real business model) is Gigya (http://www.gigya.com/) and they, too, are using Microsoft/IIS 6.0.

I'm not saying that there's a strong correlation between Microsoft and your success rate, but I just find it ironic.

The rest startups seem to not to have their business models and hoping for a buyout. Actually that includes Reddit as well. If you read Aaron's blog and see how they're desperate to get a "deal" from PG.

Note: I assume Microsoft/IIS 6.0 = ASP.NET

Wow, this is obviously the viewpoint of someone who is not at all familiar with gift societies, someone who seems to me to be desperately clinging to a dogmatism in order to convince him- or herself that his or her life has been lived in a moral manner. The truth is that it's not all black and white. Socialist != Evil, and Capitalist != Good.

You speak of corporations bringing happiness to people, but I would like to point out something that I heard a month or so ago. It used to be that people had necessities and very basic desires which were fulfilled by entrepreneurs (merchants and guildworkers) in a capitalist system. In the present-day US and several other countries, however, that is no longer the case. Companies used to be in the business of manufacturing goods to fulfill needs. Nowadays, they instead manufacture needs to sell goods. Why do you think advertising is such a huge industry?

It's all kind of funny when you consider the cycle. The current corporate structure relies on a large amount of drone workers doing the majority of the work for a small cut of the pay. The only way to make these workers do this work that no one in their right mind would do willingly is to pay them. Why do they need that money? To buy the very things that these corporations are telling them that they need to be buying. It's all a crazy, vicious cycle, and I'm afraid that it is the inevitable result of long-term capitalist societies. Do you see anything changing for the better in these regards?

In an Anthropology class a few years ago, we talked about studies that some researchers had done in comparing the lives of people in developed countries to hunter-gatherer tribes in South America and Africa. The people in these tribes typically spent 2-3 hours a day to provide their food and shelter, and the rest of the time was spent chatting, telling stories, singing, dancing, sporting, and other tribal activities. I would argue that that is happiness, not going to work 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week so that I can get a new car that gets me to work more comfortably.

To compare Open Source software to development at gunpoint is absurd. If I have an interesting idea for a piece of software that I would like to write, I am going to write the software and be very happy to share it with the open source community. This has nothing to do with violence; I have enjoyed the benefits of a completely free computing system with extensive functionality, and I am quite happy to return the favor. This is known as a gift society, not violent, immoral ideologies.

And this money-for-happiness equation that you are promoting looks a lot like pie in the sky. I worked for 2 years for a small grocer in a country gas station / food mart. The store had been in his family for something like 40 years, and he served a valuable need to the surrounding community in providing the only gas and groceries for 20 miles around. He and his wife worked long days and were by no means rich, but they made enough to live on. His regular customers knew him by name, and he was a regular bidder at the 4-H auctions every summer. Clearly, in this case, the exchange of money for goods is happy for everyone. Unfortunately, cutthroat companies like Wal-Mart move into town who have no concern for the well-being of the community, doing things like storing materials in parking lots which poison water supplies during rain, avoiding a golf cart security guard in their parking lot even though it has proven to reduce crime to 0%, relying on federal programs to cover worker health benefits, and driving all local businesses out and then moving out when the profit margins are no longer good. So the customers save money, yes, but they lose out in so many other ways. This is the problem with faceless corporations who do not see things at a human level.

In summary, my problem is not with capitalism, and I am not a socialist. I merely fear that the inevitable end of capitalism is the type of corporate society that has been steadily evolving in the U.S. and elsewhere, one in which paper and numbers are more important than people.

"In summary, my problem is not with capitalism, and I am not a socialist. I merely fear that the inevitable end of capitalism is the type of corporate society that has been steadily evolving in the U.S. and elsewhere, one in which paper and numbers are more important than people."

You contradict yourself.

Obviously you have a problem with capitalism because you beleive people should be forced at gunpoint to live the way you prefer.

This is because you value "paper and numbers" more than people.

Your idolizing of hunter gatherer societies is the kind of pseudo-science that has always been used to sell socialism.

Feel free to quit your job and go find food yourself. In alaska you are free to hunt to feed your family-- subsistence is prtected there (and its a good thing... nothing worse for the environment than environmentalists anyway.)

You talk about "Seeing things at a human level" but your idea of the "human level" is sticking a gun in someones face.

I never equated open source software wiht development at gunpoint-- so of course you had to say I did to try and make me out as crazy. People who voluntarily open source their software are Capitalists -- they are profiting (exploiting in your parlance) the works of thousands who decide to contribute to their open source software.

No, the violence ocmes in when you insist that companies must be restrained and people must be restrained from freely trading for each toher.

becauss of your pretend care for their spirit "So the customers save money, yes, but they lose out in so many other ways."

When you force walmart to stay out of your town-- you are using a gun to deny poor people the ability to feed themselves.

You, my freind, are a socialist. The spew of your post is pure socialist drivel. Its nonsense... and as long as socialists like you continue to spout hateful anti-human nonsense like that, I'll be asking the questiosn you can't answer.

Like:

Why not let people live in peace? Why do you insist on using violence to force people to live according to your (ignorant) ideas?