The inevitable eventual cost of computers.

[R P Herrold]

On Tue, 27 Jul 2010, Stephen Partington wrote:

> For me MS is going to be part of the world for a long time, even if the
> company self destructs next year. And a Large portion of software will work
> only on MS, if I want to use any of this software I will have a compatible
> platform.

I am truly interested.  Putting to one side use cases of 
recreational computing [dedicated game platforms, whether Wii, 
X-Box, etc have protocol format blockers as well as as other 
'proprietary' stickiness to try to lock a person to a given 
platform, and frankly, better 'pedal to the metal' 
performance], and putting aside applications which need to 
manipulate a intentionally properietary data API (DRM'd, 
patent wall, or public key protected content), what 
applications are you using that 'require' a non FOSS platorm?

Stated differently:  What do you need to do to earn a living, 
that FOSS cannot do?

> I would love to have the core API's used open sourced and 
> see wine get the funding to work with it. But that's 
> unlikely.

Patent protected codecs, and per seat licensed DRM wrapped 
'trade secret' implementations become available that way ...

Wine provides operability at the 'use a binary intended a 
foreign OS' environment level, sort of like a sparrow wearing 
scuba gear to go after a meal of grubs in a creekbed.

If a person is willing accept moving around on crutches, that 
is a future, I guess, but is it worth committing to using 
adaptive devices, or to find or participate in building the 
FOSS alternative?

-- Russ herrold