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Are you actually saying that charities and churches are evil? I hope not.

This is a completely different matter. Charities care for the poor who cannot pay for the things they need.

Wrong. I steal nothing. Stealing implies that what I take is no longer available to the original owner. I think we can all see the fallacy of your statement there.

OK, let's put it this way: You don't steal, but you infringe on other people's copyrights by downloading content from their websites without them getting paid for it, which is conceptually comparable to stealing.

Since socialism means the state (or other central authority) controls everything

If you cannot make money from your work because others give things away for free, your work gets devaluated. How can you compete with a free product? In the long run, there will be no incentive to be creative or innovative at all, because you cannot earn a living from it. That's typical of socialism. In the end there will be one standard browser (which is free), one standard operating system (which is free), etc. It will be the end of the software market.

Of course, when you're unemployed, you will have lots of time to work on free software. But who will pay your bills?

"Of course, when you're unemployed, you will have lots of time to work on free software. But who will pay your bills?"

Good Lord, talk about hypocrisy. Microsoft uses their monopolistic position to bundle IE, therefore making certain that no one -- but no one -- can make any money by writing and selling a browser. Then, once IE is everywhere because everyone needs Windows, they bundle WMP and start *licensing codecs* that tie into both, thus making more money. Apparently what's good for the goose isn't good for the gander: Microsoft can dump a product to corner a market, but no one else can take market share from them once they've already driven everyone else out.

Hear this loud and clear: I might be a loyal American, and even a Conservative, but in this regard, the good people at Microsoft can go s***w themselves (and, for that matter, stick their hypocrisy in the orifice of their choice). Capitalistic economies require robust competition, which is woefully lacking here.

It's past time to break Microsoft's OS group off into a separate corporate entity. Period, end of story.