RE: ICOs and the World Wide Web - History Repeats Itself, Isn't It?
Companies eventually found a way to protect their software. And while everyone loves open source software, it doesn't pay. GiMP might be great, but it still isn't as good as Photoshop. Believe me, I would dump the Adobe if I could find a better solution, but there really isn't. So, open source, pushed Adobe off of buy and own into subscription services. Sure, we get updates all the time, but sometimes I wonder, is there really an update that is worth $600 a year.
I was there with you in 1997, installing and reinstalling Linux. It just had too many hurtles to get over. On the other side Microsoft's monopoly killed innovation, either directly or indirectly. As BetaMax story tells, the better product doesn't always win.
While I am tiptoeing in the cryptoworld, I am still leery. A lot about it still seems like a scam. That feeling is why I haven't put any really money into it.
As you clearly observed, the WWW transformed the entire software industry into a much more palatable bite. Sure, $600/year may not be what you want, but remember how it was when you had to pay for each and every update of the Microsoft operating system. SQL server was sold by client licenses, and if you wanted to have 3-4 clients accessing the db at the same time you had to pay a fortune. MySQL, Apache and all the gang really transformed the landscape.
Of course the landscape is not perfect and I do not expect the financial landscape to be perfect ten years from now, when crypto would really have made its impact, but it will be dramatically different from what we have now.
We are now used to pay banking fees like we were used to pay for Microsoft OS upgrades. These type of things will get obsolete very fast.
Or at least that's what I think :)