Is this a suprise for a country that has a pretty much across the board ~18% tax on any item or service sold? The government is obviously greedy so of course they're going to be figure out a way to tax stuff that is free- Linux, air, walking on grass, you name it. It is all fair game to these crooks.
The point is, I think, that you can get a Clie that does almost everything you said (except run X-apps) for much cheaper in arguably a nicer package. As others have said, Zaurus doesn't exactly have a Cadillac shell built around it. At least with your Mac argument, the consumer gets something that is a Cadillac all the way around (again, in my opinion.)
No, Clie isn't Linux based. Does it matter though, really? There are more quality apps, IMHO, for the Palm platform that are made especially for the handheld form factor. And for something like a handheld, I kind of prefer a device that doesn't have to be rebooted when something goes wrong. People can say what they want but I was always having to reboot my Zaurus- it was always having memory leaks. I had to hard reset my Clie a couple times but it was really very rare.
Not only that but they are limited to what Windows software they will sync with.
All this is getting old- we're dealing with the same old issues year after year. How the hell hard is it to sync addresses correctly with various software packages on different platforms? Well, I was going to get in to possible solutions- some type of standardized framework, something XML based maybe, but I'll skip it. It could be a long discussion.
But bottom line, how many millions of PDAs are out there? Palms, Pocket PC, Linux based, etc? How many mail and address clients for Win32, OS X, and Linux? This is like trying to do plumbing work in a society where nobody standardized on pipe sizes. Well, uh, let me see. With this brand, the diameter is usually around 1.193 inches, but not always....
So they can sell it for less than the smaller guy's cost, and still profit. Small(er) guy can't win, has to go out of business.
Lets try this again. Why should I hate Wal Mart? What you just said is great. On the other hand, it sucks to go into "Joe's Jewlery and Electronics" to shop for a DVD player and have him show you the one model that he stocks, (sometimes), but it is out of stock right now so he shows you a flyer and tells you he'll get it for you in 8 to 10 days.
Not to mention, Joe's shop is a pretty dumb concept for cities that have millions of people. We need mass distribution, mass production, and as a result I'll take lower prices. Oh, and this Joe fellow? He can get a job giving stickers to kids when they walk into Wal Mart.
Yes, all the WalMart shoppers are really going to be pissed when they get their new boxes home and find out that since they didn't buy a 3ghz Pentium with a gig of RAM, they now can't type letters, get emails, or even open a web browser! The three things they bought the $300 box for.
On top of that, it didn't even come with XP Home.
I'd say a 300 dollar PC is pretty damn cool for a lot of people who aren't overly wealthy or aren't a techno-geek- especially when the corner computer store only sells the latest hardware at the $600-$2000 pricepoint.
Rumor is that 20 mil covers the cost of the rocket, but you still have a good amount of other expenses. Like the cost of operating a taxi in Manhattan- the cost of a taxi is big but it isn't the only expense. Same thing here. Also I'm not sure if the 20 mil covers the Soyuz capsule or just the launch vehicle.
FYI Soyuz rockets are some of the most cost effective and reliable launch vehicles in the world today. They aren't fancy, like the latest Atlas or Delta, but they do the trick.
The third time we went to the moon was boring too, eh? Seems like today once something has been done once it isn't worth paying attention to after. For some reason people watched how many years of Friends episodes though? 30 minutes of peoples lives, gone, every week for years.
I, for one, live north of the Cape and watch every shuttle launch I possibly can. Most people don't any more. I guess it depends on your interests.
To celebrate, everyone is going to be allowed to download ISO images of Mandrake Linux FREE during the next week! Find your mirrors fast- bandwidth is sure to go quick.
You spend far too much time tweaking minor issues, and lose sight of major problems.
Good point. There are probably very few cases where spending the extra hours of tweak time ever ends up being something that adds a significant amount of value to anybody, except yourself of course. I can think of a couple exceptions, but they are exactly that- exceptions to the rule. IMHO the ability to standardize installation packages is an important aspect of modern computing.
If time didn't matter, I suppose we'd could all go so far as writing all our own software that would do exactly what we wanted.
Hey, didn't Al Gore want to insert butt-plugs in cows because of the environmental impact of methane? I guess we know one guy who won't be buying one of these devices.
Government's idea of deregulation is usually laughable. Airlines, telecoms, cable providers, the power industry- all cases of "deregulation" where a few things were loosened up only to add more regulations back on top. Maybe someone can point out a case where something has been completely deregulated and turned into an industry with virtually no goverment introvention. for the moment I can't think of anything off hand....
Usually it works well for proponents of regulation though. They can then claim that deregulation only makes things worse, but I don't see how you can make this argument based on the "fake" deregulation that keeps occuring.
Its a funny thing. If some Asian company produced something called an Aye-Pod that was a complete iPod rip-off, obvious to anybody, most folks including myself would consider that just plain wrong.
It is funny though what happens when the uniqueness of an iPod is put into words as in this patent application. As I start reading it, I see many line items that sound pretty generic to a non-legal expert like myself. I'd almost have rather seen a picture of an iPod on the patent application with a big banner across it saying that this device is patented. (visual learner, I am.)
Is the patent broken if someone violates just 1 of these line items? Or, would someone have to implement the whole list of features as a whole before it was considered a violation? I mean, look at this single item:
A method as recited in claim 9, wherein when the selected media asset is an MP3 file, then the selected media asset information includes a song title, a song artist, a song album, a song length, and a stack position indicator indicative of the relative position of the selected MP3 file with regards to other stored MP3 files in the media asset player.
Now, if someone copied this in combination with other items, I'd see a major problem. But just this item? Pretty generic I think, showing ID3 tag info along with a track index number.
The World Trade Center didn't collapse due to an accident. Nor was it bombed the first time back in the early 90's on accident. Nor was it the "Make a Wish Foundation" that was behind the attacks. I'd call anyone who calls for the complete destruction of America evil. But, we may differ.
I heard these kits include over 300 individual pieces and other materials may be required for assembly such as glues, paints, etc.
What next? Small, reusable rockets that fit in a backpack, ignite with a 9 volt battery, take a photograph along the way during the nose cone ejection and float down with parachutes?
If so, I'd like for the "military experts" to explain to me how to keep the god damned things off of the roofs of houses.
Speaking of PDF, I thought I would get smart a while back- switch to OO and output my resume as a PDF, because I was starting to circulate my resume again. I was going to change the world, yes-sir-ree. No more MS Office for me. Done with it forever.
The first recruiter I sent my PDF to sent it back and said their "searchable database" required I send them a Word.doc. While I have principles, I also favor employment and income so there went the OO idea. It is too risky to send a resume in word format from OO. A lot of time the translation is shoddy and a hiring company would wonder why it looks like a 5 year old formatted the resume.
No, I think we agree more than we disagree (believe it or not!) I see your point, I'm not sure how I can further express mine other than to say this: I think IF blacks and indians and whites had been treated equally in the 1800's, Americans as a whole would have been better off in terms of life, liberty, property and happiness than they are today.
We all know slavery is a horrible thing but here is where we differ, I think. I view the 1800's in America in regards to slavery as a turning point (a positive), in stark contrast to, say, Jewish slaves in Egypt. The reason is this: As of the late 1700s, a foundation was laid that declared "All men are created equal". Now, it would take some time to enforce this fully, but it was inevitable and slavery would in fact end.
So, we give different parts of the argument a little different weight. That is fine because I see your point and respect your position. Hey, thanks for the dialog- a brain's worth nothing if it doesn't get used once in a while!
I just re-read my previous post and realized it could be considered making light of what happened at Tieneman Square. Nothing would upset me more than this interpretation of what I wrote. I'd just been discussing human liberty type issues on another thread and I guess it carried over.
But, hopefully my point is received anyway. Just because something is considered legal/acceptable/etc under some system of law doesn't necessarily make it okay.
Why shouldn't you go to jail ? Why should you be immune from the law ?
I never said I shouldn't go to jail, I just asked if it seemed right, or moral. The Chinese government obviously felt it appropriate and legal to kill a bunch of students protesting for democracy a while back. Even when a system of government supports this type of brutality, it is hardly moral.
The original message seemed to say, "this is the law, too bad, it isn't up for discussion." Perhaps I interpreted it wrong. One tends to argue less when they have a common enemy however. Nobody will argue for MS in this case because folks here hate MS and the EU hates MS. However, if it were another company like RedHat that was in trouble for something, nobody would take the attitude "this is the law, they broke it, too bad, it isn't up for discussion." Threads would go a mile long about how a the law in question was morally wrong, etc.
The point to which I objected is that there has been a "decay of liberty".
Sure there is. In the context of this discussion, if you were to open a business in the 1800's you'd have a hell of a lot less government in your face. I own my own business and trying to get it started was a joke, there was so much red tape involved it was almost impossible without a lawyer. Why should it be this difficult? If I want to sell something I should be able to set up a table and start selling it. A 12 year old girl recently got in all kinds of trouble for operating a lemonade stand without an occupational license! Government shouldn't be involved in the trade between men of goods and services. Today, it seems they do almost everything they can to stop it.
As a side note, referring to the entire history of slavery and women's suffrage as an "anectode" seems rather obnoxious and insulting.
This is how you referenced it when you took the topic out of historical context. The fact that the founding fathers all were opposed to slavery and were trying hard to make sure it was abolished was overlooked in your comments. You also did not mention the fact that slavery had been around for thousands of years and it was our country that put and end to it once and for all in the later part of the 1800's and took a giant leap to ensuring everyone is treated equally.
Your original comment about the 1800's being a negative time in history (or whatever you meant) had the same type of flaw as calling someone a vicious killer without mentioning that the knife was shoved into the "victims" back because the "victim" had a gun aimed at the "vicious killer's" child. Removing the context of the information makes it a useless "anecdotal" statement, like going around calling the guy in my example a "killer" and not offering any other information. You are the one who insulted the people who have suffered by throwing it around as part of a debate in this manner. The 1800's saw the END of slavery, and the push to end it is an accomplishment of incredible size, not a failure as you tried to indicate.
What with slavery, women being unable to vote, Lincoln suspending habeas corpus.
Exactly my point- the Constitution that was put forth provided the mechanisms to later CHANGE these contradictions of slavery, womens rights, etc. No other government in the history of the world had such a possiblity. If a woman in some other culture had asked to vote, you think the ruling thugs would have listened? You think she would have been punished, silenced, or otherwise dealt with? You think in most cultures ANYBODY (male or female) asking for the right to vote would be treated the same? Do you know how many societies in the Middle East tha are regarded as superior to our own still don't let women show their faces in public, much less vote? Have you ever taken the time to read some of the personal writings of Madison and Jefferson and the like? I'll help:
[The Convention] thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men. -Madison
Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils. -Franklin
Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. -Jefferson
Why didn't the progress and innovation of the US in the 1800's happen in Britain under the monarchy? Have you ever read Common Sense? Have you read the first hand accounts of people who lived under one system and longed for another?
The United States duing the 1800's sparked a brilliant revolution that changed the world. Where would we be today if there was no American Revolution and this continent was ruled by the King of England?
If you wish to engage in a philosophical debate on the nature of government and debate "what is a moral government", you're going to need more than grade school anecdotes.
On the other hand, if MS does it, they are seriously going to harm companies like Real
A lot of people think Real sucks- I know I won't install their stuff. It just keeps asking me to buy crap, upgrade stuff, and it has a general feel of bloatware/spyware/garbageware/etc (even if it isn't, if feels that way).
To penalize one company for "cutting into" the business of another that has failed due to lack of vision, innovation, etc. is not moral. The consumer has the ultimate choice in these matters and we vote with our dollars. The argument seems to be that people are morons (I agree with that part) and can't make good decisions so we need laws to compensate for their bad decisions.... to keep them from using their voting dollars to elect a monopoly. Why can't the solution be to educate people instead? Doesn't that have better long term advantages? Consumers can pull the plug on just any company out there if they stop buying their products and choose another. That is about as open and free as things will ever get- the ultimate ability to choose who stays and who gets "voted off".
P.S. The fact that Apple has been in biz so long and continues to sell computers is the proof that some consumers want a choice for whatever reason and exercise that choice.
Slashdot Mirror
Is this a suprise for a country that has a pretty much across the board ~18% tax on any item or service sold? The government is obviously greedy so of course they're going to be figure out a way to tax stuff that is free- Linux, air, walking on grass, you name it. It is all fair game to these crooks.
That is a LAME April Fools Day joke dude. I mean, it isn't even funny.
The point is, I think, that you can get a Clie that does almost everything you said (except run X-apps) for much cheaper in arguably a nicer package. As others have said, Zaurus doesn't exactly have a Cadillac shell built around it. At least with your Mac argument, the consumer gets something that is a Cadillac all the way around (again, in my opinion.)
No, Clie isn't Linux based. Does it matter though, really? There are more quality apps, IMHO, for the Palm platform that are made especially for the handheld form factor. And for something like a handheld, I kind of prefer a device that doesn't have to be rebooted when something goes wrong. People can say what they want but I was always having to reboot my Zaurus- it was always having memory leaks. I had to hard reset my Clie a couple times but it was really very rare.
Not only that but they are limited to what Windows software they will sync with.
All this is getting old- we're dealing with the same old issues year after year. How the hell hard is it to sync addresses correctly with various software packages on different platforms? Well, I was going to get in to possible solutions- some type of standardized framework, something XML based maybe, but I'll skip it. It could be a long discussion.
But bottom line, how many millions of PDAs are out there? Palms, Pocket PC, Linux based, etc? How many mail and address clients for Win32, OS X, and Linux? This is like trying to do plumbing work in a society where nobody standardized on pipe sizes. Well, uh, let me see. With this brand, the diameter is usually around 1.193 inches, but not always....
You forgot about the rug rats who are riding around the parking lot in shopping carts! parents nowhere to be found of course.
So they can sell it for less than the smaller guy's cost, and still profit. Small(er) guy can't win, has to go out of business.
Lets try this again. Why should I hate Wal Mart? What you just said is great. On the other hand, it sucks to go into "Joe's Jewlery and Electronics" to shop for a DVD player and have him show you the one model that he stocks, (sometimes), but it is out of stock right now so he shows you a flyer and tells you he'll get it for you in 8 to 10 days.
Not to mention, Joe's shop is a pretty dumb concept for cities that have millions of people. We need mass distribution, mass production, and as a result I'll take lower prices. Oh, and this Joe fellow? He can get a job giving stickers to kids when they walk into Wal Mart.
woefully outdated parts
Yes, all the WalMart shoppers are really going to be pissed when they get their new boxes home and find out that since they didn't buy a 3ghz Pentium with a gig of RAM, they now can't type letters, get emails, or even open a web browser! The three things they bought the $300 box for.
On top of that, it didn't even come with XP Home.
I'd say a 300 dollar PC is pretty damn cool for a lot of people who aren't overly wealthy or aren't a techno-geek- especially when the corner computer store only sells the latest hardware at the $600-$2000 pricepoint.
Rumor is that 20 mil covers the cost of the rocket, but you still have a good amount of other expenses. Like the cost of operating a taxi in Manhattan- the cost of a taxi is big but it isn't the only expense. Same thing here. Also I'm not sure if the 20 mil covers the Soyuz capsule or just the launch vehicle.
FYI Soyuz rockets are some of the most cost effective and reliable launch vehicles in the world today. They aren't fancy, like the latest Atlas or Delta, but they do the trick.
The third time we went to the moon was boring too, eh? Seems like today once something has been done once it isn't worth paying attention to after. For some reason people watched how many years of Friends episodes though? 30 minutes of peoples lives, gone, every week for years.
I, for one, live north of the Cape and watch every shuttle launch I possibly can. Most people don't any more. I guess it depends on your interests.
To celebrate, everyone is going to be allowed to download ISO images of Mandrake Linux FREE during the next week! Find your mirrors fast- bandwidth is sure to go quick.
You spend far too much time tweaking minor issues, and lose sight of major problems.
Good point. There are probably very few cases where spending the extra hours of tweak time ever ends up being something that adds a significant amount of value to anybody, except yourself of course. I can think of a couple exceptions, but they are exactly that- exceptions to the rule. IMHO the ability to standardize installation packages is an important aspect of modern computing.
If time didn't matter, I suppose we'd could all go so far as writing all our own software that would do exactly what we wanted.
I would kill to have a laptop whose battery lasted 40hours, and was topped-up using cigarette lighter gas (butane)!
Heck, I'd kill to have a laptop that comes with a cigarette lighter. I'd trade that for a PCMCIA slot any day!
Hey, didn't Al Gore want to insert butt-plugs in cows because of the environmental impact of methane? I guess we know one guy who won't be buying one of these devices.
Government's idea of deregulation is usually laughable. Airlines, telecoms, cable providers, the power industry- all cases of "deregulation" where a few things were loosened up only to add more regulations back on top. Maybe someone can point out a case where something has been completely deregulated and turned into an industry with virtually no goverment introvention. for the moment I can't think of anything off hand....
Usually it works well for proponents of regulation though. They can then claim that deregulation only makes things worse, but I don't see how you can make this argument based on the "fake" deregulation that keeps occuring.
Its a funny thing. If some Asian company produced something called an Aye-Pod that was a complete iPod rip-off, obvious to anybody, most folks including myself would consider that just plain wrong.
It is funny though what happens when the uniqueness of an iPod is put into words as in this patent application. As I start reading it, I see many line items that sound pretty generic to a non-legal expert like myself. I'd almost have rather seen a picture of an iPod on the patent application with a big banner across it saying that this device is patented. (visual learner, I am.)
Is the patent broken if someone violates just 1 of these line items? Or, would someone have to implement the whole list of features as a whole before it was considered a violation? I mean, look at this single item:
A method as recited in claim 9, wherein when the selected media asset is an MP3 file, then the selected media asset information includes a song title, a song artist, a song album, a song length, and a stack position indicator indicative of the relative position of the selected MP3 file with regards to other stored MP3 files in the media asset player.
Now, if someone copied this in combination with other items, I'd see a major problem. But just this item? Pretty generic I think, showing ID3 tag info along with a track index number.
actual existing evil.
The World Trade Center didn't collapse due to an accident. Nor was it bombed the first time back in the early 90's on accident. Nor was it the "Make a Wish Foundation" that was behind the attacks. I'd call anyone who calls for the complete destruction of America evil. But, we may differ.
I heard these kits include over 300 individual pieces and other materials may be required for assembly such as glues, paints, etc. What next? Small, reusable rockets that fit in a backpack, ignite with a 9 volt battery, take a photograph along the way during the nose cone ejection and float down with parachutes? If so, I'd like for the "military experts" to explain to me how to keep the god damned things off of the roofs of houses.
I'm still wondering why one of the Resume XML standards doesn't become popular. They'd greatly ease life for recruiters and those applying.
Same curiosity here. Wouldn't machine parsing XML be easier than parsing a word document for content?
P.S. where do you get that scratch and sniff pink paper? need some for, umm... my kid.
Speaking of PDF, I thought I would get smart a while back- switch to OO and output my resume as a PDF, because I was starting to circulate my resume again. I was going to change the world, yes-sir-ree. No more MS Office for me. Done with it forever.
.doc. While I have principles, I also favor employment and income so there went the OO idea. It is too risky to send a resume in word format from OO. A lot of time the translation is shoddy and a hiring company would wonder why it looks like a 5 year old formatted the resume.
The first recruiter I sent my PDF to sent it back and said their "searchable database" required I send them a Word
No, I think we agree more than we disagree (believe it or not!) I see your point, I'm not sure how I can further express mine other than to say this: I think IF blacks and indians and whites had been treated equally in the 1800's, Americans as a whole would have been better off in terms of life, liberty, property and happiness than they are today.
We all know slavery is a horrible thing but here is where we differ, I think. I view the 1800's in America in regards to slavery as a turning point (a positive), in stark contrast to, say, Jewish slaves in Egypt. The reason is this: As of the late 1700s, a foundation was laid that declared "All men are created equal". Now, it would take some time to enforce this fully, but it was inevitable and slavery would in fact end.
So, we give different parts of the argument a little different weight. That is fine because I see your point and respect your position. Hey, thanks for the dialog- a brain's worth nothing if it doesn't get used once in a while!
I just re-read my previous post and realized it could be considered making light of what happened at Tieneman Square. Nothing would upset me more than this interpretation of what I wrote. I'd just been discussing human liberty type issues on another thread and I guess it carried over.
But, hopefully my point is received anyway. Just because something is considered legal/acceptable/etc under some system of law doesn't necessarily make it okay.
Why shouldn't you go to jail ? Why should you be immune from the law ?
I never said I shouldn't go to jail, I just asked if it seemed right, or moral. The Chinese government obviously felt it appropriate and legal to kill a bunch of students protesting for democracy a while back. Even when a system of government supports this type of brutality, it is hardly moral.
The original message seemed to say, "this is the law, too bad, it isn't up for discussion." Perhaps I interpreted it wrong. One tends to argue less when they have a common enemy however. Nobody will argue for MS in this case because folks here hate MS and the EU hates MS. However, if it were another company like RedHat that was in trouble for something, nobody would take the attitude "this is the law, they broke it, too bad, it isn't up for discussion." Threads would go a mile long about how a the law in question was morally wrong, etc.
The point to which I objected is that there has been a "decay of liberty".
Sure there is. In the context of this discussion, if you were to open a business in the 1800's you'd have a hell of a lot less government in your face. I own my own business and trying to get it started was a joke, there was so much red tape involved it was almost impossible without a lawyer. Why should it be this difficult? If I want to sell something I should be able to set up a table and start selling it. A 12 year old girl recently got in all kinds of trouble for operating a lemonade stand without an occupational license! Government shouldn't be involved in the trade between men of goods and services. Today, it seems they do almost everything they can to stop it.
As a side note, referring to the entire history of slavery and women's suffrage as an "anectode" seems rather obnoxious and insulting.
This is how you referenced it when you took the topic out of historical context. The fact that the founding fathers all were opposed to slavery and were trying hard to make sure it was abolished was overlooked in your comments. You also did not mention the fact that slavery had been around for thousands of years and it was our country that put and end to it once and for all in the later part of the 1800's and took a giant leap to ensuring everyone is treated equally.
Your original comment about the 1800's being a negative time in history (or whatever you meant) had the same type of flaw as calling someone a vicious killer without mentioning that the knife was shoved into the "victims" back because the "victim" had a gun aimed at the "vicious killer's" child. Removing the context of the information makes it a useless "anecdotal" statement, like going around calling the guy in my example a "killer" and not offering any other information. You are the one who insulted the people who have suffered by throwing it around as part of a debate in this manner. The 1800's saw the END of slavery, and the push to end it is an accomplishment of incredible size, not a failure as you tried to indicate.
What with slavery, women being unable to vote, Lincoln suspending habeas corpus.
Exactly my point- the Constitution that was put forth provided the mechanisms to later CHANGE these contradictions of slavery, womens rights, etc. No other government in the history of the world had such a possiblity. If a woman in some other culture had asked to vote, you think the ruling thugs would have listened? You think she would have been punished, silenced, or otherwise dealt with? You think in most cultures ANYBODY (male or female) asking for the right to vote would be treated the same? Do you know how many societies in the Middle East tha are regarded as superior to our own still don't let women show their faces in public, much less vote? Have you ever taken the time to read some of the personal writings of Madison and Jefferson and the like? I'll help:
[The Convention] thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men. -Madison
Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils. -Franklin
Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. -Jefferson
Why didn't the progress and innovation of the US in the 1800's happen in Britain under the monarchy? Have you ever read Common Sense? Have you read the first hand accounts of people who lived under one system and longed for another?
The United States duing the 1800's sparked a brilliant revolution that changed the world. Where would we be today if there was no American Revolution and this continent was ruled by the King of England?
If you wish to engage in a philosophical debate on the nature of government and debate "what is a moral government", you're going to need more than grade school anecdotes.
On the other hand, if MS does it, they are seriously going to harm companies like Real
A lot of people think Real sucks- I know I won't install their stuff. It just keeps asking me to buy crap, upgrade stuff, and it has a general feel of bloatware/spyware/garbageware/etc (even if it isn't, if feels that way).
To penalize one company for "cutting into" the business of another that has failed due to lack of vision, innovation, etc. is not moral. The consumer has the ultimate choice in these matters and we vote with our dollars. The argument seems to be that people are morons (I agree with that part) and can't make good decisions so we need laws to compensate for their bad decisions.... to keep them from using their voting dollars to elect a monopoly. Why can't the solution be to educate people instead? Doesn't that have better long term advantages? Consumers can pull the plug on just any company out there if they stop buying their products and choose another. That is about as open and free as things will ever get- the ultimate ability to choose who stays and who gets "voted off".
P.S. The fact that Apple has been in biz so long and continues to sell computers is the proof that some consumers want a choice for whatever reason and exercise that choice.