Hi, Dave and Matt.

You are right on target. I wrote a piece on this on my blog not long ago. I'll not promote it here.

I use Ubuntu Linux and run it on a fairly new AMD laptop. I use Linux because it is, for exactly the reason you stipulate, a more trustworthy OS than Windows. I bought the AMD laptop to avoid Intel DRM hardware, which I cannot trust to work for me instead of members of the WIPO Mob.

I pointed out in my article that I don't read the source code, but I'm sure others do. Therefore, I don't have an absolute guarantee of trustworthiness, but I do have a much higher probability. Jason Matusow misses the point.

And, like you, I don't know if Fukuyama is right; time will tell. But, if you do a fairly simple economic analysis and try to plot FOSS vs proprietary software, I think you see an "S-curve" switch as inevitable. Two years ago I made a trip to Europe and was startled by what I saw (as opposed to what I had been hearing on Kudlow and Cramer). When I returned, I moved all of my investments to European and global equities. I have not looked back.

Yes, trust is what will eventually make Linux the favorite OS by vertical application developers. I don't know what makes you think that MS has its users best interest at heart more than its stock holder's, but many former application developers are starting to be very distrustful of Microsoft. As a developer, how do you know that Microsoft won't slow down your app with a software patch so that theirs perform better? Or how do you know that they don't have secret optimized APIs in the OS that only their applications can use? They are known to have done this in the past, why not again? With Linux, all developers are in a level playing field. Applications rize to the top based on merit, not on based on secrets in the OS. So, if you are an application developer, such as Adobe, AutoDesk, Macromedia, Oracle, Symantec, etc., programing your applications for Windows only, leaves you in Microsoft's hands. That is why you will see more of this types of developers move gradually to Linux, an OS they can trust.

Hello Matt,
I disagree with your opinion that Microsoft "does have its customers' best interests at heart". (I think that their history and current behavior shows that they wants to gain ownership of your computer, your data, and even your entertainment by whatever means are available-- legal or otherwise, and then 'lease it back to you' on the nastiest and most expensive terms they can get away with.)

But I really want to comment on a different aspect of your analysis: I think that those of us who don't change FLOSS software which we use are depending on the ability and license rights of other people to inspect and repair/modify the code for us. Personally, nearly every FLOSS software project running on my computer isn't modified by me, but I trust others to assure it's quality and security: It's not the 1% chance that I will want to look at/change code, but rather the certainty that I'm depending on 'many eyes' to do it for me.

(Although I *am* running with a customized GTK.)