[Mimedefang] OS wars... [was Viruses: Bounce or Discard?]

[David F. Skoll]

On Mon, 29 Sep 2003, Rob MacGregor wrote:

> I use Microsoft for both my desktop and my email package.

That's fine.

But don't you think it's fair that *you* pay for viruses your machine
sends?  I assume you're more clueful than average, and keep your system
patched and use good anti-virus technologies, so any 10cents/virus charge
probably wouldn't cost you anything anyway.

> I do so because  this combination supports the functionality I want/need.

Again, I have no problem with that.  I just feel that users of such software
should pay the *true economic cost* of the software rather than being
subsidized by the rest of the Internet.

> Give people a positive reason for moving to other software and they
> will.

I believe that charging the true price for software (rather than
an artificially-cheap price) is only fair.  If this makes people move
to other software, then that's fine -- it's a purely economic decision
based on an undistorted market.  Currently, the market is horribly
distorted as providers everywhere spend money subsidizing the users
of insecure software.

Regards,

David.