[Keoki]

I think the current "commercial vs. free" software debate is a lot
like the "PC vs Mac" one: at the end something third will probably
happen. In the case of software, I think we'll sooner or later see a
public utility type distribution system emerge, like the one for
water. Water used to be an pricey commodity too, like software is now,
people even died in wars for it. In some remote parts of Asia water is
still being sold by the bucket, I saw it with my own eyes.

Wherever water became a public utility, it makes little sense to steal
it anymore because the monthly bill, shared by the teaming millions,
fell to a mere fraction of the original. My hunch says, something
similar will happen to software too, eventually; we'll see a better
distribution system, reminiscent of public utilities. Even more, with
computers and networks slowly reaching the remotest parts of the
planet, software retailed as a utility have the potential to replace
oil as the true global "currency". Imagine that, human thinking
finally valued high. The movie industry will have a crisis, how can
they produce "smartout at OK Corral" movies? :-)


And that's a better argument for free software than Stallman ever made, too.
--scott