Comment Re:Why wouldn't they? (Score 1) 242
old guard also does always happen.
s/does/does not/
Speaking of lame...
old guard also does always happen.
s/does/does not/
Speaking of lame...
But it is also boring and lame.
I agree that it's boring and lame. If Singapore is the logical conclusion to Chinese affluence, we can probably be assured of Yet Another American Century.
I merely was stating that the argument that prosperity -> democracy does not always happen, and that democracy -> a sharp and unpleasant end for the old guard also does always happen.
It won't last though. There's a generation of children being born who will take economic prosperity for granted. It's the nature of humanity, and by that same token they'll want more than just that. With economic power in their hands they'll want political power, and that's when the government will be in trouble.
Maybe, maybe not.
Taiwan went from single-party (and single-family) rule to a full-fledged democracy in the course of about 15 years. The old farts who had been running (and robbing) the country were quietly retired and a generation which was willing to allow more political pluralism were seated in their place. This happened with a lot of protests, legislative fistfights, and more than a few cracked heads on the street, but it did not involve putting the heads of the Old Guard up on a post in the process.
On the other side, Singapore has become wildly prosperous, with no sign of democracy or pluralism anywhere in sight. The People's Action Party (read: Senior Minister Harry Lee and his son Lee Hsien Loong) still run everything. It's a weird place. It's clean, it's modern. People go in, people go out. If living in the Lees's Disneyland pisses you off, you're free to go to Australia, or the US, or wherever you like. Everyone knows the rules, and nobody rocks the boat.
Several people have pointed out variations on this, but we'll try again:
Apple sells hardware. To a certain extent, they sell content. I don't know how much the App Store or iTunes makes for them. Maybe a substantial amount. Hardware is their cash cow. Open source the software, and both pillars of their model are lost.
Microsoft sells software. That's self-evident.
OSS companies are generally in the business of selling professional services. i.e., we'll give you the operating system. We will sell you what amounts to a support contract for a small fee per workstation. If you want to integrate it, or make it do clever things, we have people who do that by the hour for a reasonable fee. If you're giving away software running on servers in the back room of a large company, there's good money to be made using that model. If you're selling $200 iPhones? ehhhh, not so much.
An Ada exception is when a routine gets in trouble and says 'Beam me up, Scotty'.