Subject: Re: Questions about Symbolics lisp machines From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 04:14:23 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3226277678401093@naggum.net> * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen | And I think the division between infra-structure stuff and "applications" | is artificial. The former is "stuff that IT people need to work" and the | latter is "the rest". Saying that we should get that stuff for free and | the rest shouldn't sounds almost, well, libertarian. :-) To me it sounds very much like labor unions that have solidarity only with their own, which has been a stronghold of socialist ideas for ages, guilds that allow only accepted members to benefit from their knowledge, which were precursors to the labor unions. Absolutely nothing here can be construed to be "libertarian". Libertarian would have been make everybody pay for everything all the time. As for infrastructure vs applications, I see this as the same difference as between road systems and cars. While people can build their own roads, few highways and interstate routes are built by private interests, not the least because it costs so goddamn much to set up usage-based payment systems to get the money back compared to using tax money on it. /// -- In a fight against something, the fight has value, victory has none. In a fight for something, the fight is a loss, victory merely relief.