> What are they teaching in the schools these days?
>
> Capitalism does not exist solely to dominate: it's a survival strategy. 
> A business must make enough to cover its costs and stay in business, no 
> more  and no less. If the mission of the business is to be ubiquitous 
> and omnipresent, that has nothing to do with capitalism except as a 
> mechanism. Coca-Cola's mission is to have an ice-cold Coke with an 
> arm's reach of anyone on the planet, and that guides their decision 
> making. Does BMW want everyone to drive a BMW? Not if they want to keep 
> making the type of cars they make now: they make cars for a specific 
> niche market, as does Mercedes-Benz/Daimler, et al. Apple makes 
> computers for a  niche market, and while I'm sure they'd love to be the 
> majority player, they exist because they make a profit and cover their 
> costs.
>

	Capitalism also allows shareholders as stakeholders in a 
corporation.  These stakeholders invest their money in the corporation 
in the expectation of getting a ROI that befits the risk entailed.  
Microsoft has been considered a growth stock for many years now.  They 
achieved this status by increasing their marketshare, or increasing the 
cost consumers will pay for their product while at the same time keeping 
their present marketshare.  Their shareholders expect this, as they 
expect a certain percentage ROI.  If Microsoft doesn't deliver, these 
shareholders can vote out the board and have CEO's fired ( unlikely, I 
know ), or move their money elsewhere ( more likely ).  Certain 
company's have a different mission statement then Microsoft, like Apple, 
but they are both operating in a way that befits a capitalist system.
	Capitalism isn't the cause of Microsoft's actions, greed is.  
Capitalism does allow an entity like Microsoft to exist though.  Does 
that mean Capitalism is bad?  On NetBSD, I can run Blackbox as my WM and 
Lynx as my browser with Mutt as my e-mail client, or I can run Gnome 
with Mozilla and ( enter bloated e-mail app here ), does that make 
NetBSD bad?  The point is, Capitalism is a system, like NetBSD.  
Capitalism offers choices for costumers in a marketplace ( because of 
the DOJ trial and now the states' action, this is true again).  NetBSD 
offers a choice on how a user wants their computing experience to be and 
they can custom-tailor it to fit their needs.  If we don't like the 
bloated OS's out there we can use another, or write our own.  I think 
now, more then ever, it is important that we be able to offer people an 
alternative.  Microsoft has been distracted.  Now is the time to fix 
bugs and write good, non-bloated, multi-platform code, not complain 
about Microsoft or the evils of Capitalism.
	This post is not directed at anyone in particular.  I've noticed a 
lot of non-productive MS bashing on the list lately, of which I'm also 
guilty : (  From now on, more time coding, less time complaining.

Ian

Of course it runs NetBSD
www.netbsd.org