[tlug] more TRON press

["J. David Beutel" <jdb@example.com>]

Seems like a lot lately.  J@example.com Inc describes Dr. Sakamura as "brilliant 
yet humble".

11011011

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 02:09:21 +0900
From: newsletters@example.com
Subject: JIN No. 236 (the J@example.com Inc newsletter) 07/23/03

** Japan's Bill Gates Gives it Away

In Brief: A recent Reuters report describes the plight of Ken Sakamura,
dubbed "Japan's Bill Gates" for his development of the TRON operating
system -- used to run everything from digital cameras to car engines, 
and in fact now more widely used than Gates' Windows OS -- yet earning 
billions less than his celebrity American counterpart. You see: TRON 
was, and remains, totally free.  

Commentary: This is another one of those iconic stories about brilliant
yet humble Japanese who either fail to get it (i.e. the capitalist money-
mind), or get it only via archaic Japanese cultural values -- which prize
group solidarity and sharing over self advancement, and read to Westerners
like socialism. But it was the US who stopped TRON's proprietary
spread in 1989, with a ridiculous trade barrier.  "It's not good to charge
people for using something which is like a social infrastructure," says 
Sakamura now, a man who earns about $125,000 per year. Our Windows
software crashes and burns as often as yours does, we guess.  TRON's
mobile phone software systems never crash.  Guess what?  We agree with
Sakamura.

Link:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/businessstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3513518&thesection=

business&thesubsection=technology&thesecondsubsection=information&thetickercode=