How do you know?
Good point but I suppose I'll never know.
Think about it for a second, there are three companies, each have their own office suit, now each company wants to make it as easy as possible for people to choose their product, if their program can read their competitor's file it makes it much easier, if their format can be read by other non-competing programs then it encourages other developers to write software compatable with their program. Adobe wouldn't have made shuch a sucess of Acrobat if they hadn't made their format open, MS have only been able to keep their office formats closed and still be a sucess because they already have the main matket share.
And such a scenario will NEVER EVER happen.
I can't predict the future, no one can so it's pointless to argue about this, but I'd make the same prediction.
Heck, it's more likely that free software does take over the market (which is very unlikely) before that scenario occurs, IMO.
Well this probably won't happen either but I also agree only because Linux has a higher share than Mac OS and there is no third competitor.
And which would you prefer?
I don't know, free software sounds good but I'm not convinced it'll be good quality, I'd rather have good proprietry software rather than cheap and nasty free shit, which is why I've chosen Opera over Firefox.
I doubt it.
If Microsoft weren't in power I bet you no one would really care about open vs closed source. When was the last time anyone gave a shit about whether a car company released the blue prints for their latest car? Has anyone really been discouraged from buying a TV just because the evil company hasn't given them the schematics? Anyway this debate is pointless since we're talking about a hyporthectical situation that doesn't exist.
Microsoft doesn't come into the equation, at least for me.
Oh yes it does, there's your bank and all the other businesses you rely on that use MS product, not to mention the rest of the economy you also depend on. :p
It's about right and wrong.
That depends on you point of view, so far the only company to cause any harm by means of proprietary software is Microsoft, for this reason I'm anit-MS but not anti-proprietary software. I do encourage sharing and I don't take the moral high ground an accuse anyone who chooses not to share of being evil.
