Have you seen the movie? The Pantagraph part was part of a dream sequence. And like most dream sequences, it doesn't reflect the truth. It was supposed to be a fantasy.
Seriously folks.
I really think you just proved the previous poster's point: proprietary software vendors aren't accountable to the vast majority of their customers when it comes to software quality. Your argument that there are invisible forces that guarantee quality support is interesting, but flaky at best.
If I were purchasing proprietary software for a business, and the salesperson told me that the market dictated the quality of his software, I would laugh him/her out of the room. Windows 98 has got to be some of the worst software ever released on a large scale, and at one point is was the most popular os in the world!
The vast majority of customers that use proprietary software are home and small-to-medium-sized businesses. These groups typically receive no direct support from their vendors, except for the ocassional patch. Ease of use to these customers is much more important than support options, because they know they'll hardly ever see the latter.
The missing "support" piece for cusotmers that are looking for an alternative to Windows is small consulting shops. Once small-to-medium sized companies are confident that they can install and use Free, quality software, they'll be happy to not pay for licensing and receive equal (if not better) support.
Slashdot Mirror
Have you seen the movie? The Pantagraph part was part of a dream sequence. And like most dream sequences, it doesn't reflect the truth. It was supposed to be a fantasy. Seriously folks.
I really think you just proved the previous poster's point: proprietary software vendors aren't accountable to the vast majority of their customers when it comes to software quality. Your argument that there are invisible forces that guarantee quality support is interesting, but flaky at best.
If I were purchasing proprietary software for a business, and the salesperson told me that the market dictated the quality of his software, I would laugh him/her out of the room. Windows 98 has got to be some of the worst software ever released on a large scale, and at one point is was the most popular os in the world!
The vast majority of customers that use proprietary software are home and small-to-medium-sized businesses. These groups typically receive no direct support from their vendors, except for the ocassional patch. Ease of use to these customers is much more important than support options, because they know they'll hardly ever see the latter.
The missing "support" piece for cusotmers that are looking for an alternative to Windows is small consulting shops. Once small-to-medium sized companies are confident that they can install and use Free, quality software, they'll be happy to not pay for licensing and receive equal (if not better) support.