What I dislike the most about patents, is that they actually are a legal way of creating a monopoly. If you invent some kind of wristpad or a paperclip and you patent it, you do it so others are not allowed to make them also, this means that you can charge a lot of money for yours and make them low-quality - since nobody is allowed to make a cheaper, better one.
So the answer is simple: if you invent something cool, put it to good use and make a nice product out of it. By being the first on the market you'll have a big advantage over the competition. If in the end someone using your idea beats you anyway, he probably makes better stuff than you do (and earned his top spot in the same way you earned being the first to release it.)
I often hear people say that running a Linux/BSD webserver is only cheaper is you have a lot of time on your hands. However, most people running websites don't do all the site administration themselves, so for them it's not really an issue.
I've personally used NT for a lot of development and wanted to have a site hosted on Windows NT, because I knew some ASP and was familiar with ISAPI. But where I live (Europe, I've checked most countries here) Windows NT hosting is usually three times the price of Linux/BSD hosting. So I went for a Linux server and discovered that (after trying out some other hosters for other sites) having a database or other extensions installed is usually also very expensive on NT (try getting them to let you install your own ISAPI extensions) and that most Linux/BSD hosters would happily let me use their (MySQL/PostgreSQL)database and stuff like PHP and my own CGI-scripts.
Administration-issues are only important for a small bunch of people.
Everybody is attempting to secure loads of linux* domainnames because they think a good domain name is important for reaching a large audience. The most popular sites however are probably slashdot.org, freshmeat.net, userfriendly.org and some others that don't begin with linux (ok there are ofcourse some exceptions) so in the end - content matters.
but rather an evolution. Mr. Ebert seems to think the first digital projector will be the only one ever to come out and give the best possible results. But I figure he'll find out in a couple of years that you can't push old technology forever and that the digital projectors have come a long way by then. But the concept of competition is always good. This will make both Maxivision and TI work harder:)
Slashdot Mirror
So the answer is simple: if you invent something cool, put it to good use and make a nice product out of it. By being the first on the market you'll have a big advantage over the competition. If in the end someone using your idea beats you anyway, he probably makes better stuff than you do (and earned his top spot in the same way you earned being the first to release it.)
I've personally used NT for a lot of development and wanted to have a site hosted on Windows NT, because I knew some ASP and was familiar with ISAPI. But where I live (Europe, I've checked most countries here) Windows NT hosting is usually three times the price of Linux/BSD hosting. So I went for a Linux server and discovered that (after trying out some other hosters for other sites) having a database or other extensions installed is usually also very expensive on NT (try getting them to let you install your own ISAPI extensions) and that most Linux/BSD hosters would happily let me use their (MySQL/PostgreSQL)database and stuff like PHP and my own CGI-scripts.
Administration-issues are only important for a small bunch of people.
Everybody is attempting to secure loads of linux* domainnames because they think a good domain name is important for reaching a large audience. The most popular sites however are probably slashdot.org, freshmeat.net, userfriendly.org and some others that don't begin with linux (ok there are ofcourse some exceptions) so in the end - content matters.
I can just see my girlfriend coming home and the R100 going: "Hi, how about you and me having some fun together?"
but rather an evolution. Mr. Ebert seems to think the first digital projector will be the only one ever to come out and give the best possible results. But I figure he'll find out in a couple of years that you can't push old technology forever and that the digital projectors have come a long way by then. But the concept of competition is always good. This will make both Maxivision and TI work harder :)
I hope they'll turn down any cash that might be attached to it or RMS will likely propose to ban their project :)
Seems like Orwell was wrong after all, being mad doesn't make you a minority of one - but a minority of 22% of the entire population!