Microsoft tipping

[Alma J Wetzker]

David A. Bandel wrote:
> On Sun, 28 Dec 2003 16:48:01 -0600
> Alma J Wetzker <almaw at ieee.org> wrote:
> 
> [snip]
> 
> 
>>>I have deep concerns about a computing world without Microsoft. 
>>>Without a standard to emulate and exceed, I fear that the open source
>>>community would fail.  I am also much more in favor of Bill Gates
>>>running the computer movement than, say, Larry Ellison or Lou Gerstner
>>>(I think Linus would make a bang up job of it).
> 
> 
> M$ is a follower, not an innovator as you would have folks believe.  A
> standard to emulate and exceed ... M$ has set many things, but never
> standards.
> 
> 
>>>I use linux for reasons of my own that are not really connected to
>>>hatred of M$ or seeking an alternative.  I just need a system that
>>>works.
> 
> 
> Yep, always nice to have that.
> 
> 
>>>I think the article makes some astute points and that M$ is currently 
>>>threatened.  No one has ever won betting against the nimbleness of M$.
>>> They 
>>>are capable of moving drastically and quickly, if they feel a need to.
>>> (I 
>>>hold up the change to embrace the internet and ???/IP when the net
>>>burst onto the scene.)  I just want to see how M$ moves to get out of
>>>this one.
> 
> 
> The net burst onto the scene _many_ years before M$ had the wits to
> patch 3.1 so it could communicate via other than the "sneaker net".  I
> know, I've been using the Internet since 1978 (10 years after it was
> implemented by (D)ARPA).  That's a _long_ time before Windows 3.1.  The
> nimble moves you point to are knee-jerk reactions to the myrmidom
> finding out something exists that they might want.  In fact, the
> "Internet explosion" you allude to happened after NCSA created HTML
> documents and a browser folks could read them with without understanding
> how to run a CLI FTP program and read a bland text file.  But that was
> 1990 for Pete's sake.  Or does e-mail, FTP, Gopher, and all the rest
> just not matter?
> 
> No, the net did not burst onto the scene thanx to M$.  Only all the
> morons of world finally found they could read something not on their
> local computer without any particular effort.  M$ gets no prize for
> that, IE was the late comer.  Check your history.  The first browser
> (other than NCSA's, which I believe only ran on UNIX) was Chameleon or
> some such.  This is a real strain on my memory being over 10 years ago. 
> Hell, that was about the time I first started running Linux.  I really
> liked the way it looked, felt, and acted like Ultrix.
> 
> Ciao,
> 
> David A. Bandel

I stand corrected.  My comment on the net was that M$ saw the world going to 
TCP/IP and away from MSN and NetBIOS, it moved quickly to capture that space.

In my view, M$ puts ease of use above everything else; Security, stability, 
scalability, *ility.  They will steal or buy anything to keep ease of use at 
the forefront.  They actually spend money on R/D for ease of use.  I am still 
afraid that without that goad in the open source community, ease of use would 
not ever be a goal.  Speaking as a programmer; Once the program is working, I 
want to be done.  Spending lots of time making some useless, unneeded 
interface to a working program just isn't that interesting (or fun).  In fact, 
it is often harder than writing the fool program in the first place.  You just 
never run as fast without competition.

     -- Alma