[ Thanks to Dave Guard for this
link. ]
“Creative computer applications are a niche, and a relatively
small one at that. Even brand-leading proprietary software
companies like Steinberg, the developers of the long-established
Cubase music sequencer, have been recently bought out.
Consolidation in the creative application market has seen Adobe buy
Syntrillium, who created Cool Edit, Avid buy Digidesign and Apple
buy Logic–and there are plenty of other examples. What this means
is that a handful of multinational companies could now effectively
monopolise the gateway to creative expression, at least as far as
computers are concerned. This might not be an issue if it were not
for the wide proliferation of powerful, general purpose computer
hardware in the first world…”