LINUX BUSINESS

[Alex Satrapa]

On Thursday, November 29, 2001, at 01:59 , Matthew Hawkins wrote:
> When people start writing off $8,000 worth of new compuer equipment as
> tax expenses every 12 months, they might consider making the software
> work for all Australians, not just a single minority group.

Or the Tax Office, following in the pattern of "what takes least effort" 
will simply audit your tax records and claim back the $7,999 of that 
expense that wasn't actually used to file those tax records. Then they'd 
send you to gaol for tax evasion and false reporting, since that would 
save them the effort of dealing with your fraudulent tax report next 
year.

At some point in time, the Government has to wake up and realise it's 
being held hostage by a hostile foreign national. "Pay us the ransom, or 
your computers will cease working." That sounds like extortion - if not 
terrorism - to me. But by the time that threat comes through, it will 
require less effort to hand over the ransom than it would to switch to 
an open, flexible and secure platform like OpenBSD.

Alex

"Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the 
rest of your life." -Michael Sinz