CompuServe Messages

If you sell 7 million copies of Windows in the forest where there's no one to hear it, does the cash register make a sound? 7 million people shelled out money for for Windows; only 3 million did so for Amigas (actually, 2,999,999, since I have two. A valid comparison? I doubt it, but so what? It reminds me of the story of the tourists looking at the Grand Canyon when one said to the other "I wonder how long this has been here," and the other replied "3 million years and six months." The first tourist was astonished. "How do you know that?" "Because when I was here six months ago, the tour guide said it had been here for 3 million years." Three million Amigas sold is no more (or less) valid a statistic than any other. To put it another way, I'm continually amazed at the large sales numbers rung up by utterly mediocre or inferior products, and although I'm not fooled by the numbers, they do dictate where the markets go. It's kind of pathetic, like the chief said in Little Big Man — "There are only a limited number of Human Beings, but there is an inexhaustible supply of white men." Nevertheless, I'd bet Bill Gates is getting 7/3 more enjoyment out of it… :+) Mike