World Domination?

[Tony Arnold]

On Wed, 2005-04-13 at 09:12 +0200, Andre Truter wrote:

> Take for instance shopping.  The world of shopping is dominated by
> supermarkets.  Why?  Because the supermarket gives the user the choice
> between many products.  The consumer is free to choose between many
> different products and supermarkets.
> 
> If the world were dominated by the old type general store, you would
> be at the mercy of what the owner thought a good product were.

I think this is a bad example! If the small store dominated we had have
lots of them and therefore choice about where we went shopping, and thus
choice in the products too. At the moment I have about 3 supermarkets
locally I can choose from. Not much choice really!

There is also the effect supermarkets have on the small traders, i.e.,
putting them out of business, and on the suppliers screwing them down to
the lowest possible price and so they don't last long or lead a pitiful
life.

In my view, OSS is more like a large number of small shops whereas
monoliths like Microsoft are more like the dominant supermarkets!

Just my own private thoughts and going rather off topic!

Regards,
Tony.
-- 
Tony Arnold, IT Security Coordinator, University of Manchester,
Manchester Computing, Kilburn Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL.
T: +44 (0)161 275 6093, F: +44 (0)870 136 1004, M: +44 (0)773 330 0039
E: tony.arnold at manchester.ac.uk, H: http://www.man.ac.uk/Tony.Arnold