I love the Irish attitude to software: why pay for something you can copy!
Everyday I hear - can't we jsut copy that websites content ? Its clearly publicly available. Restrictions by licences - those damn programmers earn too much money anyway, why should I pay €200 for something that cost €1billion in R&D when I can just copy it.
People don't like Ubuntu because it was pioneering or made their lives easier, they like it cos it's free and so is everything that comes with it. Its so funny - read anybody switching from Windows to Linux and you'll see nuggets like "wow, this ubuntu is almost as easy to use as Windows...." or "this ubunut is so clever - they have a menu button on the bottom LHS and a clock on the RHS - ON A TOOLBAR!!! " and other clearly original bits.
We have no respect for soft IPR in this country at all. News, software, content. The jaw-dropping expression of "You can't copy RTE news onto my site for me [cos I'm too ****ing lazy] - what am I not paying you for" ?
Lads, how cheap are we Irish? This view that we've installed the software = all the work is done by us. Driving around Dublin people clearly have no problem dropping €60k on a Mercedes!
I've met so many people who are happy to take a loan for €35k to buy a new VW Polo (with thin grip-free tyres, no TS, no EPS, no metal) but when you tell them they might have to pay €1,000 to market their website [=online business], their face turns to "you want to steal my children" from me ?
FFS
We live in an open economy. IBM thought OS/2 was better than Windows. The MARKET told them they were wrong, just like they got it wrong with the PS/2. I like Windows and have always done so. Sure it's not perfect, but it's better that what UNIX used to be BEFORE it copied Windows. If it was so ****ing bad, it wouldn't be copied and it wouldn't be the market leader.
Lot's of other companies were market leaders in many different areas - they stopped being innovative, stopped thinking and got knocked off. Sure it might and probably will happen to Microsoft -they didn't get it right with Hotmail, MSN Live/Search and other things too. They got replaced. It's not impossible. It's a ****ing operating system not a ****ing religion.
Rant over. Thanks. Feel much better now. Ah, breakfast.