LuYu, we need all kinds of competitors—large and small. How many people have Microsoft’s resources?

Just to be clear, I totally agree with this in principle. However, I am talking about Microsoft, not all proprietary software vendors. While businesses do different things to protect their commercial interests, Microsoft has a long and distinguished track record of wicked business practices. They also have a history of being hostile towards choice in the market and Freedom in general. Diversity is good. Microsoft, specifically, is bad, and their money is dirty.

The other thing is that the existence of commercial products keeps open source people more alert as to users’ needs.

Even then, free/open source folks might fail. A prime example is the XO-1’s reading app—oh, how the built-in reader sucks!

One open alternative, FBReader, is great but it has a way to go and even now is not Sugarized.

So my position remains: I want both models, free/open and commercial, to flourish—with tech standards, vigorous anti-trust enforcement and other tools used to keep Microsoft from taking over the cosmos.

I’d also love to see massive foundation support of open source software, just so the money comes with strings: namely a requirement that coders be responsive to users.

Here’s to the mixed approach! Diversity is good in both biology and software dev!

Thanks,
David

It seems to me that MS has been quite busy destroying other improvements in our information environment lately, and one less cookie pot for their grubby hands sounds like a very good development to me. After all this OOXML garbage — with their blatant bribery and bullying of standards bodies — and MS’s recent efforts to destroy OLPC, one can only imagine how much more damage they would do if they could find a way to control the ebook world for their coffers.

At Microsoft, Freedom is the enemy, so when the Big Bad Wolf goes to another neighborhood, I think it has to be good for all of us (except, of course, the people in the target neighborhood).

As for competition, that should come from us: Everybody who is working toward better solutions for ebooks. We should come up with better solutions. We may not have Microsoft’s money, but we (the citizens of the internet) have more people with more free time than all their employees combined. This is an opportunity to create something good while Big Brother Bill is otherwise engaged.