not having an economics degree makes me less than qualified to make blanket claims about the beneficial effect competition has on product price and quality, but i can assure you things cannot get more ineffecient than they are right now. microsoft has a stranglehold on the computer software market - netscape's ex-ceo put it best when he compared ms to the mob, i think.
if microsoft was broken up there would certainly be problems, but in the end it would be better for the software industry as it would allow more companies to get off the ground, rather than being swallowed up or destroyed by one or two huge conglomerates. thus - more innovation. the current system may not be broken, but it is certainly crippling to the industry. we can only hope that if the doj doesn't fix the problem (and putting our faith in the government is asking for trouble) that linux will.
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not having an economics degree makes me less than qualified to make blanket claims about the beneficial effect competition has on product price and quality, but i can assure you things cannot get more ineffecient than they are right now. microsoft has a stranglehold on the computer software market - netscape's ex-ceo put it best when he compared ms to the mob, i think.
if microsoft was broken up there would certainly be problems, but in the end it would be better for the software industry as it would allow more companies to get off the ground, rather than being swallowed up or destroyed by one or two huge conglomerates. thus - more innovation. the current system may not be broken, but it is certainly crippling to the industry. we can only hope that if the doj doesn't fix the problem (and putting our faith in the government is asking for trouble) that linux will.