[X Newbies] OS stability - was Re: [X Newbies] Crashing of text editor?

[Steven Rogers]

On Mar 30, 2004, at 4:23 PM, Eugene Lee wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 30, 2004 at 03:24:56PM -0600, Steven Rogers wrote:
> :
> : On Mar 30, 2004, at 3:11 PM, Charles Martin wrote:
> :
> : >As a point of fact, one cannot dispute that Microsoft is a monopoly
> : >(an abusive monopoly, actually), since it has been judged so by both
> : >the US Circuit Court and the European Union. That *makes* it a fact,
> : >in addition to being bloody obvious.
> :
> : Kind of like when states pass laws that declare Pi = 3.0  Yeah, its
> : really cool when governments make things be true.
>
> Steven, why are you bringing up strawmen?

I'm not bringing up a strawman, I'm critiquing the form of the 
discussion, just like you do below.

> Some laws are good.
> Some laws suck.
>
> When presented with several examples of M$ having monopoly power and
> abusing it, you avoid addressing the matter altogether.  You sound like
> a religious hippie.  "Government is baaaad, n'kay?"  Good grief Steven,
> are you one of those people who never thought for a moment that M$ used
> its near monopoly power to unfairly kill competition?

In short, yes.  I haven't gone into a lot of detail because it starts 
getting off topic pretty fast - but I think what I have said is at 
least as sensible as the idea that a government ruling "*makes*" MS a 
monopoly. There's absolutely no arguing with that - any more than you 
could argue doctrine with the Pope.

This is probably no the place to do the MS and anti-trust theory 
discussion one more time. My overall point is that when Mac users 
explain trends like MS vs. Linus or Open Office vs. MS Office, they 
tend to rationalize away the idea that other people could be making a 
well-considered choice for a non-Mac platform. These are the same 
people who are often politically and philosophically inclined to say 
"there are no *right* answers; what's right for me may not be right for 
you" - but when someone else makes a choice they disagree with, they 
discount and rationalize away the choice itself, and the possibility 
that someone else has genuinely different priorities that lead them to 
a different conclusion.

SR