I will simply say that at this point in time it appears that Microsoft must be tolerated. The same goes for Intel and IBM. I note that the greatest economic expansions in history occurred when "robber barons" were allowed to prosper. Monopolistic practices do however become intolerable past a certain threshold. It is interesting to note that at a certain point the very wealthy become aware that they really cannot take it with them and divest themselves to fund foundations which endure for generations.

The children of the wealthy are generally able to spend more time on education and CAN be a powerful influence for progress. Where things have gone wrong is a fascination with self indulgence rather than a commitment to public service. Another major flaw has been a fascination with political manipulation to control the general population. This behavior has also reached a threshold of allowable tolerance.

I have taken sides on the issues to a certain extent, as you noted in the little joke which was so objectionable to geoschmo. I am willing to give a few pointers here there and yonder but do not on principle think that I should do more than that. The change in policy by the government versus Microsoft is nothing I did but probably results in a shift of tactics rather than a strategic about face.

I would be satisfied to see several more robust computer architectures become available which are NOT designed for hacking as the IBM PC compatible designs so obviously are. Such hacking ability is not just vulnerable to script kiddies but also to renegade Microsoft employees......

So far as operating systems go there should also be alternatives, in particular some which do NOT force the customer to buy a whole house when all they need is a kitchen sink, to switch metaphors slightly from what I used previously. The new Amiga digital environment addresses the issue of cross platform interoperability and encourages innovation to reduce the overhead of the current operating system layers. In other words, the level of abstraction from the hardware is now ratcheting up another notch. Another notch is practical now because processor speeds have improved significantly. As Arcadenut pointed out, we would still be in the dark ages of command line interpreters if it were not for icon and menu protocols. As I pointed out, that was NOT a contribution by Microsoft but was hijacked by them.....

So far as the objection I have to marketing, advertising, and sales practices go, I have a simple suggestion to make. Let the government put a percentage of sales cap on what can be expensed and anything in excess of the cap must come out of profits rather than be expensed.

Any further questions are welcome, please feel free to ask. Not that what I think is important in the long run.....

Edit :
I am confident that a former Texas governor like President Bush will be able to do the right things once Congress is brought into line, and do whatever is best for the people of the USA rather than follow an agenda limited to his own personal ambitions and those of the Republican party. The party loyalty overriding common sense is another major problem, but I do not meddle in politics.....

[This message has been edited by LCC (edited 07 September 2001).]