Re: [tlug] Re: Why Vista Sucks (was: linux: it's becoming ubiquitous)

["SL Baur" <steve@example.com>]

On 4/5/08, Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen@example.com> wrote:

> This is the relevant issue, to my mind.  People who complain (I don't
>  mean you, but it's too common, especially in that often-despicable
>  CPSR crowd and Richard Stallman) that they are being underbid by
>  Irish, Croatian, and Indian programmers are basically revealing that
>  they were born in a rich society and think that endows them with an
>  inalienable right to grow up rich at others' expense.

(To prove one of Steve-san's points ...)

I will admit to being partially inspired to devote my spare and working time
towards what would later be called "Linux" and later "renamed", but let's not go
there just now.

But this just always scared the living kuso out of me:
> All sorts of development can be funded with a Software Tax:

> Suppose everyone who buys a computer has to pay x percent of the price as a
> software tax. The government gives this to an agency like the NSF to spend on
> software development.

> But if the computer buyer makes a donation to software development himself,
> he can take a credit against the tax. He can donate to the project of his own
> choosing—often, chosen because he hopes to use the results when it is done.
>  He can take a credit for any amount of donation up to the total tax he had to
> pay.

> The total tax rate could be decided by a vote of the payers of the tax, weighted
>  according to the amount they will be taxed on.

(Quoting from the GNU Manifesto, which either I removed or tried to remove
from XEmacs, I recall serious opposition).

-sb (who has been living in the 3rd world for awhile now and if only stupid
game vendors would cooperate, Free Software could be their ticket out of
poverty)