This will not surprise anyone who knows about computer

[fpb]

How in the name of Hell and of every variety of evil did Norton Antivirus ever become the best-selling commercial protection software? The damned thing is as damaging as the viruses it's supposed to fight. It has just caused me the most elaborate and unmanageable computer crash I have ever seen, which even led to me being physically injured (as I was removing the battery and the power cable, the only way I could see to shut the machine down, it fell over straight on my ankle, where it cut right into the flesh). To misquote the old song, Norton is a moron.

Comments

[fpb.livejournal.com]

You speak as though big business had anything to do with the free market. Oligopoly, let alone monopoly, is not free market.

[superversive.livejournal.com]

Where a free market exists on any significant scale, big business is bound to arise, because a market that forces businesses to remain small is not free. Of course oligopoly is not a free market; it’s a disease that afflicts free markets.

—But abusus non tollit usum; and in this case the abusus arises from the free decision of businesses and consumers to ignore alternatives. Freedom unfortunately includes the freedom to make foolish choices. As long as those alternatives remain viable, the market is doing a job that regulation has never accomplished and isn’t suited for.