Linux World domination (was Re: [NCLUG] PC for Linux (Ubuntu))

[Scott Kleihege]

Brian Wood wrote:
 > Close, very close. I seem to recall there was a statement to the effect
 > that just because you have made a profit from the public in the past,
 > the government is not obligated to ensure that you continue to do so. I
 > thought I recalled the buggy whip analogy, though I may be
 > mis-remembering the oil lamp line.

There was a movie called "Other People's Money" from 1991 that used buggy 
whips as an example when talking about disruptive technology.

At a stockholder meeting, Danny DeVito's character says, "This company is 
dead. I didn't kill it. Don't blame me. It was dead when I got here. It's 
too late for prayers. For even if the prayers were answered, and a miracle 
occurred, and the yen did this, and the dollar did that, and the 
infrastructure did the other thing, we would still be dead. You know why? 
Fiber optics. New technologies. Obsolescence. We're dead alright. We're just 
not broke. And you know the surest way to go broke? Keep getting an 
increasing share of a shrinking market. Down the tubes. Slow but sure. You 
know, at one time there must've been dozens of companies making buggy whips. 
And I'll bet the last company around was the one that made the best goddamn 
buggy whip you ever saw. Now how would you have liked to have been a 
stockholder in that company? You invested in a business and this business is 
dead. Let's have the intelligence, let's have the decency to sign the death 
certificate, collect the insurance, and invest in something with a future. 
"Ah, but we can't," goes the prayer. "We can't because we have 
responsibility, a responsibility to our employees, to our community. What 
will happen to them?" I got two words for that: Who cares? Care about them? 
Why? They didn't care about you. They sucked you dry. You have no 
responsibility to them."