> it's pretty much an "alternate universe" situation Yup. In the early days, hardly anyone paid for software (as such); when you paid for your mainframe, the s

> it's pretty much an "alternate universe" situation Yup. In the early days, hardly anyone paid for software (as such); when you paid for your mainframe, the software, complete with source, was bundled. You also got training, and engineers to help you use the thing. When hardware became cheap, everyone and his dog started writing software, just to learn (or play) with the new hardware. It's very hard to envisage a scenario where cheap, powerful machinery can't spawn a community of hackers producing free (or very cheap) applications. If your counterfactual scenario contains internal contradictions, it isn't really possible to draw useful conclusions about how that scenario might develop.