Re: [tlug] Vendor lock-in vs monopoly

["Mike Mazur" <mmazur@example.com>]

Hi,

On 9/28/07, Nguyen Vu Hung <vu-hung@example.com> wrote:
> In a speech of RMS[1], he said that "proprietary program is a monopoly"
--------------8<-------------------
>   "Support for a proprietary program is a monopoly, because only the
> developer has the source code, so only the developer can make any
> change."
>   "But when it's a choice between proprietary software products, yes
> there're monopoly, because the user who chooses this product, then
> falls into this monopoly for support, but if the user chooses this
> product, he falls into this monopoly for support. So really it's a
> choice between monopolies, and the only way to escape from monopolies
> is to escape from proprietary software, to escape to the free world."
> http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Free_Software_and_Beyond:_Human_Rights_in_the_Use_of_Software_and_Other_Published_Works

>From this snippet it looks more like he's speaking about software
*support* rather than the software itself.

If you purchase proprietary software, only one company can give
support because only that one company has the source code.

Mike