Microsoft tipping

[Ted Ozolins]

Alma J Wetzker wrote:

>
> 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.

This is where I totally disagree with you Alma. The absence of M$ will 
not depreciate competition. I do not believe that Linux will become a 
one_distribution_OS thus the competition for ease of use will be driven 
by the user base and not M$. As various software companies port to 
Linux, the demand for support and ease of use will become the new 
competition. It was that long ago that setting up a new printer as a 
total nightmare and the source of many flames (my asbestos suit has many 
a scorch marks to attest to this) As the user base increased so did the 
ease of installing hardware. In some cases printing may not be as easy 
to set up as some would like, its still a lot better then it was. 
Everything from sound to networking has become easier to setup, driven 
by the users and graciously given by many talented programmers. This is 
how Linux has and will grow, thanks to the many many working together 
for a single goal.

JMHO

-- 
Ted Ozolins(VE7TVO)
Westbank, B. C