>DIRECTLY Even in your example, the effect from Open Source is at least two steps removed. The problem you are referring to has more to do with Moore's law th

>DIRECTLY Even in your example, the effect from Open Source is at least two steps removed. The problem you are referring to has more to do with Moore's law than open source software. Let's take IBM in the 1950s. Renting the use of a 701 from IBM would have cost $15000 per month. In today's dollars, that would have been about $1.8 million per year. How exactly would you propose that IBM in the 1950s actually convince the world's population to use a computer at all, let alone using one to keep track of all of their conversations? OSS didn't make that change, cheaper silicon did.