>>>And the Microsofties appropriated the work of generations before them, going
back to Babbage and Lovelace (and much of it subsidized by governments and
universities). But since Gates is one of the principal owners of Microsoft, he has
the legal right to pocket the proceeds of other people's labor. How piggy<<<<<
Not to mention the fact that Gates went to the state legislature in Washington to LIMIT the amount that programmers can make per hour.
BTW Has anyone ever tried to put a dollar amount on the taxpayer money spent to subsidize R&D for the computer industry and related industries? The current Federal R&D budget is $60B. That's about one quarter of the total R&D budgets for all US industries. Any idea how much the Federal R&D budgets for the past 50 years would come to in today's dollars?
chuck miller