I am surprised there is so much hubub here. This is a perfect example for an economics 101 calss. It is all supply and demand. I enjoy comics, so a Detective Comics 27 is worth $125,000 to me, to someone else it isn't worth the paper it is printed on. Look at the beanie craze. WHy would I pay $4000 for a dumb bear. It isn't worth more than $3 to me, but to a collector it is all about supply and demand. They have to ante up the $4000 to get it. In a sense this isn't virtual property any more than money itself. What is money? A littel paper and ink (or copper and nickel). In reality the only thing that makes it valuable is its socially accepted value and its scarcity. If the government printed billions more it would be worth far less. All these palyers are doing is paying one "virtual" item of value for another item or service. If you buy a character or gold, you are paying for the service of someone else earning it for you. It is an interesting twist, but no different in basic concept.
This could work and I would buy one if they were cheaper, but when you can buy a high end laptop for around $1500, why would I pay almost $900 for a low end pentium without the drives, monitor, etc. If you want a machine for a car dash or something similar it is still just cheaper to slice and dice a laptop.
Get real. I hate the way Microsoft pushes companies around and how they think they should dictate how technology should progress, but buying one of their products doesn't hurt Linux. The fact is that Office (Especially Office 2000) is a decent piece of software and works pretty well. It is integrated better than most if not all of the competition and therefore I will buy copies for my Windows machines. If they had a version for Linux that worked and I thought it was the best answer to what I was looking for I will buy it.
Basically YOU are the true threat to Linux. The psycho-user who thinks that you have to blow off all the thousands of products out there because you have a hate campaign against the OS maker. I on the other hand am a professional and I rely on 10 - 15 different high-end programs a day. I don't have the luxery of dropping them all for a baby operating system, no matter how much i love it (and I do!!!)
When there are programs like 3ds Max, Photoshop (yes I know they are geting there) Premiere, etc. for Linux I will gladly go after them. The probelm now is that there isn't enough SUPORTED software out there for the average user to risk it. If Microsoft wants to throw a hat in the ring with a fully functioning version of Office I will be in line to buy it. If someone can make something free that is better, faster, and reliable, then I will go for that.
Basically the main thing is that I think for myself. Saying that anyhitng that Microsoft touches is evil is as closed minded as the executives at Microsoft that say Linux is just a passing fad. The truth is that both have good qualities and both have bad. Let the market duke it out. The best product will come out on top and you want pass out from screaming at someone that has a very well thought out REASON to buy something.
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I am surprised there is so much hubub here. This is a perfect example for an economics 101 calss. It is all supply and demand. I enjoy comics, so a Detective Comics 27 is worth $125,000 to me, to someone else it isn't worth the paper it is printed on. Look at the beanie craze. WHy would I pay $4000 for a dumb bear. It isn't worth more than $3 to me, but to a collector it is all about supply and demand. They have to ante up the $4000 to get it. In a sense this isn't virtual property any more than money itself. What is money? A littel paper and ink (or copper and nickel). In reality the only thing that makes it valuable is its socially accepted value and its scarcity. If the government printed billions more it would be worth far less. All these palyers are doing is paying one "virtual" item of value for another item or service. If you buy a character or gold, you are paying for the service of someone else earning it for you. It is an interesting twist, but no different in basic concept.
This could work and I would buy one if they were cheaper, but when you can buy a high end laptop for around $1500, why would I pay almost $900 for a low end pentium without the drives, monitor, etc. If you want a machine for a car dash or something similar it is still just cheaper to slice and dice a laptop.
Get real. I hate the way Microsoft pushes companies around and how they think they should dictate how technology should progress, but buying one of their products doesn't hurt Linux. The fact is that Office (Especially Office 2000) is a decent piece of software and works pretty well. It is integrated better than most if not all of the competition and therefore I will buy copies for my Windows machines. If they had a version for Linux that worked and I thought it was the best answer to what I was looking for I will buy it.
Basically YOU are the true threat to Linux. The psycho-user who thinks that you have to blow off all the thousands of products out there because you have a hate campaign against the OS maker. I on the other hand am a professional and I rely on 10 - 15 different high-end programs a day. I don't have the luxery of dropping them all for a baby operating system, no matter how much i love it (and I do!!!)
When there are programs like 3ds Max, Photoshop (yes I know they are geting there) Premiere, etc. for Linux I will gladly go after them. The probelm now is that there isn't enough SUPORTED software out there for the average user to risk it. If Microsoft wants to throw a hat in the ring with a fully functioning version of Office I will be in line to buy it. If someone can make something free that is better, faster, and reliable, then I will go for that.
Basically the main thing is that I think for myself. Saying that anyhitng that Microsoft touches is evil is as closed minded as the executives at Microsoft that say Linux is just a passing fad. The truth is that both have good qualities and both have bad. Let the market duke it out. The best product will come out on top and you want pass out from screaming at someone that has a very well thought out REASON to buy something.
Open source or not, it will never all be free.