[ppaul]

That includes entire nations like India and Russia with huge pools of programming talent who simply cannot afford to be sending Gates and Co. an extra two hundred dollars every time they turn around.

Too bad for them.
They cannot afford the best software.
Oh well, that means we'll keep our competitive edge for awhile.

[medved]

That includes entire nations like India and Russia with huge pools of programming talent who simply cannot afford to be sending Gates and Co. an extra two hundred dollars every time they turn around.

Too bad for them. They cannot afford the best software. Oh well, that means we'll keep our competitive edge for awhile.

Consider, that IBM had a fully functional 32-bit OS with a good 32-bit presentation manager in 1992. Gates and Company, knowing it would be four years (summer of 96, NT 4) before they had anything comparable, told all the software houses in America that if they wrote software for OS2, they'd be out of the loop; they would not have the necessary information to write for 32-bit windows, WHEN it arrived. Unfortunately, everybody pretty much caved.

The problem: the next time America has to wait four years for Msoft to catch up, it might be Japan Inc. or somebody in India who catches up.

Other than that, the notion of calling msoft software "the best" is idiotic. Msoft locks up 80% market shares with a combination of third-rate software and fascist marketing.