"Roedy Green" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 16:10:24 -0700, "David Schwartz" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote or quoted : >> If the deal didn't give you more than it cost you, all you had to do >> was >>say 'no'. I understand the frustration at being forced to pay for >>something >>what it is worth. > The choice was go along with MS arm twisting or go out of business. Only because the product they were providing you was so important you were unable to do business without it. > I call that extortion. Microsoft had something you need so badly that you could not go into business without it. So they demanded from you that you pay them what their software was actually worth to you. That is not extortion. Everyone who sells something tries to get the maximum possible value for it. (Of course, you could have gone into business selling servers. Or Macintoshes. Or another business entirely. It was only to go into the business of selling PCs with Windows that you had to deal with Microsoft.) DS -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list