Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!athena.mit.edu!captkidd From: captkidd@athena.mit.edu (Ivan Cavero Belaunde) Newsgroups: gnu.gcc Subject: Re: HELP me not buy a MAC II Message-ID: <12039@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> Date: 15 Jun 89 20:36:24 GMT References: <8906151800.AA00328@sugar-bombs.ai.mit.edu> Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU Reply-To: captkidd@athena.mit.edu (Ivan Cavero Belaunde) Distribution: gnu Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lines: 44 In article <8906151800.AA00328@sugar-bombs.ai.mit.edu> rms@AI.MIT.EDU writes: > If you guys really want people not to buy Mac's, you have to provide a > simple, non-political reason: that you have to have something better > to offer. >What you are saying, in effect, is that everyone is apolitical and >considers only their short-term self interest. Not really, though. He is recognizing that people consider their short-term self interest when making this decision (after all, that's probably the reason they're buying a computer in the first place). A lot of people do take other matters into consideration; however, they must weigh their own self-interest against the other matters. Most of the time self-interest wins. >This is not completely correct. Some people do consider long-term >public interest in making their decisions. Reaching these people is >better than reaching no one. > >For most Americans, most of the time, you may be right. I think you are mistaken. Just because someone made a decision to buy an Apple machine doesn't mean they didn't consider the long-term public interest. I'd think most Americans do take into consideration other criteria than their own self-interest when making decisions, it just happens that self-interest wins out most of the time (God am I repeating myself or what?). The person who bought an Apple machine without taking into consideration the public interest you either haven't reached with your message or he/she simply believes you are wrong. That doesn't make him/her wrong (opinions are opinions, after all). >As for making technically better alternatives, I'm doing the best I can. >If someone would like to improve idraw, that would be a good contribution >to GNU. I'd like to work in something like that (for the technical challenge, mostly), but I (and probably a lot of other people, too) have reservations about supporting goals that I don't necessarily agree with. -Ivan Cavero Belaunde Internet: captkidd@athena.mit.edu Disclaimer: MIT didn't say it, I said it all. It's aaaall mine.