Re:I never liked the idea of regulation. (Score 2, Insightful)

I don't hold that idea true - the "free market" is filled with thousands of products which were better than their competition but failed due to external factors; timing (VHS vs. Beta), initial impressions (internal combustion vs. steam engines in the first automobiles), deceptive marketing, etc. etc. The truth is that in today's free market, the advantage will always tilt toward the organization with a larger supporting infrastructure. The ability to make slick advertisements, bundling deals with OEM's, etc can overcome functional disadvantages such as reliability and security. Coupled with the idea ingrained in humans that "expensive = better", and it suddenly becomes very difficult for OSS to compete on a level playing field (notice I didn't say impossible, only more difficult). That being said, regulation almost always causes more problems than it solves. I won't argue whether regulation would help or hurt software in general - however it would be difficult to argue against the point that regulation rarely works as intended. Thank you for listening to my soap box stump.