think of the test. What is being tested? If you haven't noticed, most software is paid for by advertising, or selling people's private information. The 'market' where a lot of software can survive is being tested on several criteria.
1. does it trick people into giving away as much info as possible?
2. does it make people Dependant on it?
3. does it provide any important social value to those who have lots of money?
Even in a market where people pay real money for software, typically either people need the software but won't buy it because it costs too much, or the software is so cheap that they sacrifice some of their needs.
The market is where good ideas go to die.
Let's have a thought experiment. Imagine a world where we can get our best and brightest people to work on any software for free. There is no need to pay them or the hardware they use.
Do you think society would dedicate their brightest people to working on advertising (Google, Facebook), or peddling cheap Chinese goods (Amazon), or locking businesses into perpetual software cages (Microsoft, Oracle, Apple).
Do you think the market could have created the Internet?
Do you think the market could have created PCs?
Do you think the market could have selected Tablets?
(It is a hypothetical question, because none of those things were created under market pressure.)
1. does it trick people into giving away as much info as possible? 2. does it make people Dependant on it? 3. does it provide any important social value to those who have lots of money?
Even in a market where people pay real money for software, typically either people need the software but won't buy it because it costs too much, or the software is so cheap that they sacrifice some of their needs.
The market is where good ideas go to die.
Let's have a thought experiment. Imagine a world where we can get our best and brightest people to work on any software for free. There is no need to pay them or the hardware they use.
Do you think society would dedicate their brightest people to working on advertising (Google, Facebook), or peddling cheap Chinese goods (Amazon), or locking businesses into perpetual software cages (Microsoft, Oracle, Apple).
Do you think the market could have created the Internet? Do you think the market could have created PCs? Do you think the market could have selected Tablets?
(It is a hypothetical question, because none of those things were created under market pressure.)