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Comment by joshsyn | Hacker News Reader

Problem? Thanks to Microsoft and other capitalist companies for revolutionizing the way we do computing today.

Microsoft didn't revolutionize anything, they've always just bought the competition (manufacturers, developers, etc) but had to adopt Linux when that stopped working and Linux was winning without having to pay people because the Linux community cares more about progress than profit.

What would have happened if Richard Stallman had decided to go work for a capitalist company and just worried about making money?

I think linux on the desktop would be been better story.

My point is without Microsoft we wouldn't be where we are today. We'd be lagging far behind. Apple being the only competition, would probably still be selling Apple 2.

Why is it that Linux is always playing catch-ups with device drivers, KDE, GNOME, wayland to be on par with Windows or Mac equivalent? Cause there are lack of resources, how many people want to invest their time for nothing in return? Very less.

You value your freedom very little, if you think that it means nothing.

Poor logic. I never said I don't value Linux or freedom. Last time I checked, nobody dictates what you use. I don't understand why making profits is shunned as such a problem? And takes away your freedom?

You are free to not use products from companies you don't like. Trust me I do value Linux, currently typing this from my Ubuntu machine. I hope it speeds up in development, but without the proper incentive, it simply is not happening. Only companies I see in the desktop space are valve at the moment who have vested interest on the gaming aspect. I don't think every developers are going to say kumbaya and develop for Linux without getting any kind of financial support. O.o

You said that people don't want to invest and get nothing in return. But you do get two things: 1. freedom, since you are developing free software, freedom for you and for others. 2. Maybe recognition. I figured that you didn't value those things, perhaps I am wrong. Of course there is nothing wrong with making a profit, the problem I have is doing so by artificially restricting what people can do with their computers.

It's not exactly lack of resources but a lot of effort duplication across the various distros and other unix-like operating systems.

If all unix-like OS devs or even just all Linux devs pooled their efforts in to one distro, they'd have beaten Windows long ago.

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