Bill Gates once said something to the effect... the person with their software on the most machines wins (hence not tying the software to the machine and a relatively lax enforcement with respect to violators ... v. apple "you have to do things our way so we can keep making you pay.) Though being expected to pay for product is common sense... in this case it is a matter of... well... the industrial development field rapes people with propriety. Wouldn't it be better if manufacturers allowed people to learn how to make their hardware work... at little to no cost... then more and more people get comfortable with it... they will recommend their over-priced hardware time and time again because they know how it works... even though you can buy a network card for beans for a PC system... frankly... a whole PC for the price of some CPUs out there alone... and make their money that way?
Anyway... I am not participating in this particular thread until someone tries to help more thoroughly address my original question... the rest of you can debate here, off-topic as long as you want... I am not here to have a philosophical/business-model debate... I posed a question and so far I have only a partial answer.
