Microsoft tipping

[Alma J Wetzker]

Ted Ozolins wrote:
> 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
> 
I sincerely hope you are correct.

     -- Alma