Note on 10/31/04 - My argument was pretty much demolished by someone more knowledgable than me about computers and software development. My experience in software development was writing a program that solved one of Google Labs' problems. Only to find that it had already been solved, and a mere Google search would have gotten me the answer. Maybe I'm similarly wrong on everything, because I have no area of expertise. I'll leave this rambling up just because I don't believe in covering up my mistakes. I stand by my assessment of Firefox, though.
(10/24/04)
I couldn't understand why everyone loved Firefox so much. After much research, I realized that I stumbled into something far greater and more perplexing than just open-source browsers: the entire open-source movement.
People - free software is stupid. Imagine if the NBA no longer paid players to play, and didn't charge money for tickets or TV rights. All fans could enjoy the game, right? Wrong. The game would suck. Who would play professional basketball for no money? Where would they play? Talent pools would dry up because nobody would dream of becoming a professional basketball players. Money is the catalyst that allows the game to exist.
Now what boggles my mind is that the people behind the open-source movement are programmers, who have everything to lose from open-source. These guys are enthusiastically digging their collective grave, and they're doing it ON THEIR FREE TIME. It's especially heinous when unshowered computer science college students spend all their time doing this because they're decreasing the market value of their own skills. It's like these guys don't want a decent salary. But that's right, they can always just blame the outsourcing for their financial ills.
Now open-source nerds are clamoring for Diebold to release the source code for the software running its electronic voting machines. Morons. Why doesn't Diebold publish the source code for its ATMs, too? Oh wait, that's right - someone could potentially defraud the banks for thousands, if not tens of thousands. And that's with prescreened bank employees controlling the ATMs. The volunteers running to polls have greater integrity, I'm sure.
The speculative idea that open-source software will lead to greater innovation and better software is dead wrong. Take a look at Wikipedia. It's sometimes great, but sometimes grossly counter-productive. Wikipedia will NEVER be better than Encarta, Britannica, or any of the others.
Communism has never worked in its many incarnations, what makes this incarnation any different? Capitalism is still the best system for spurring innovation and production. And yes, I did just compare the open-source movement to Marxism.
