[NMLUG] Re: Re: PC World Linux article

[Steve Browne]

On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 12:22:22 -0700, you wrote:

>> On the other hand, for the greedy capitalists pigs out there, Red Hat
>> stock has gone up x5 in the past year.
>
>Uh, I beg your pardon?
>First, capitalism is about saving money (capital) and using it to generate 
>income ("make your money work FOR you").  The United States is not a 
>capitalism economy: it's a consumerism economy.
>Secondly, I don't think Redhat is anywhere near greedy.  Priced Redhat versus 
>Windows lately? or versus other things?
>Third, even if they are greedy, that's the way businesses become over time.  
>The more money they have, the more money they want.  If you don't like it, no 
>one's forcing you to buy.
>Redhat is probably missing for one of the following reasons: 1) Redhat decided 
>to ditch desktop and focus on business platforms.  I don't blame them: smart 
>choice.  Let Mandrake / SuSE / Xandros / Lycorise / Lindows handle that.  
>This may be why the author decided to not use it.  2) That, and redhat 9 is a 
>little "dated" when compared to SuSE 9.0 / Mandrake 9.2.  About this, if 
>someone's wondering why it wasn't mentioned, they can email the author.
>If Redhat stock has gone up 5x, is it due to greediness?  I don't think so.  I 
>don't think the major stock market analysts even care about whether a company 
>is greedy or not.  In all honesty, they aren't clamoring around Microsoft, so 
>if a company isn't as greedy as Microsoft, do you think a stock market 
>analyst will notice, or even care?
>The moral has been and always will be that you can try Linux for free per 
>distro, and then buy the one you want (i.e. invest in them).  I look at all 
>the features and advanced patches and such that Mandrake 9.2 has, and I have 
>no problem paying for that.  I tried them all for free before I chose one.  
>Everyone else can do the same.
>We've always known that Linux is free, and that if you pay you're paying for 
>support.  Get over it.  You're starting to sound like a troll.

You need a sense of humor.

Steve
Stephen B. Browne
sbrowne at ix.netcom.com
"Ubi bene, ibi patria."