[ale] Shelf Space

[jester1 at mindspring.com]

On Fri, 21 May 1999 17:17:43 -0400, Robert Heaven
<rheaven at bellsouth.net> wrote:

> Over the past several years, every time I go into a computer store (i.e.,
> CompUSA) I always look at the shelf where they keep the operating system
> software. Historically, the ratio of Microsoft products (DOS originally and
> then Windows more recently) to Others has always been about 10 to 1.
> Yesterday, while in the CompUSA store in Duluth, near Gwinnett Mall, I had
> a pleasant surprise. The ratio of Linux to Windows was about 8 to 2 in
> favor of Linux. What's even more refreshing is that, in the 10 minutes I
> was standing there 3 different people walked up and pickup up a Linux box
> and headed for the checkout counter.
> 
> The things I see happening in the software operating system industry today
> sort of reminds me of a "Fractured Fairy Tale" cartoon I saw many years ago
> on the "Bullwinkle" cartoon show. (I think I just dated myself) There was
> this greedy king that kept taxing the subjects more and more because he
> loved his gold more than anything else. All day he lay around in his pile
> of gold and looking at it and playing with it. And the people of the
> kingdom were very sad. Then one day, while the king was swimming in his
> pool filled with gold he noticed something odd. The people of the kingdom
> were laughing and singing and were happy. This, of course, angered the king
> very much. When he looked out from his castle he saw all the people of the
> kingdom going about their daily business, trading goods, eating and in
> general being happy. He thought to himself, "How can this be? They have no
> gold to buy things. How can they be carrying on business without gold." So,
> when the king went down into the village he saw, to his shock, that the
> people were not using gold at all. They were using turnips. The moral of
> the story was: The king in all his greed, became the poorest man in the
> kingdom.
> 
> So, guess what King Bill Gates. The people are using Turnips now. We don't
> need your gold anymore.

AMEN!

Jester


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 *    Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the 
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