Stephen J. Turnbull writes:
 > I'm not suggesting a central task allocating agency or anything like
 > that; I just think that a lot of developers would like to have some
 > tools to help evaluate the likely outcomes of proposed projects.

I think that's what cosource and sourcexchange are intending to do.
Well, the second for sure -- I haven't looked at the first.

 > And some people will go for broke.  Thanks to Karsten Self, who
 > advised me of http://www.abisource.com/.  I'm on record as saying it
 > won't work, by which I mean it won't ever get significant share (>=1%)
 > in the Windows market, nor will anything like 100% of Linux/Windows
 > dual-booting types trash their copies of Word for it (make that
 > ">=50%" for the purposes of keeping score).

I think you're setting their sights too high.  Maybe they're not out
to save the world from Windows, but instead just to pay their mortgages?

 > I'm saying certain people won't buy certain kinds of insurance at the
 > market price.  Aren't which people and which kinds of insurance
 > interesting questions here?

Well yes, and so is the clearing price.  I think you're jumping to
conclusions about the price.  I mean, who would have predicted ten
years ago that you could buy 10 gigabytes of hard drive for $200?

 > These products are highly differentiated; an important question is
 > still _which_ products should we implement or improve?  Isn't it?

Sure.  The low-hanging fruit.  Any suggestions?

-- 
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