Microsoft tipping

[Andrew L. Gould]

On Monday 29 December 2003 10:56 am, Alma J Wetzker wrote:
> Andrew L. Gould wrote:
> > On Monday 29 December 2003 10:15 am, Net Llama! wrote:
> >>On Mon, 29 Dec 2003, Alan Jackson wrote:
> >>>On Sun, 28 Dec 2003 23:11:46 -0600
> >>>
> >>>Alma J Wetzker <almaw at ieee.org> wrote:
> >>>>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,
> >>>
> >>>Maybe I'm odd, but I don't find Windows easy to use. I find it obscure,
> >>
> >>You're not odd.  I've had similar experiences.  And don't even get me
> >>started on the nightmare that is M$-Exchange.
> >
> > New features and convenience produce continued revenue streams. 
> > Security, stability, etc don't sell because they aren't visible -- they
> > aren't new toys for the average consumer.  If we could just make them
> > sexy somehow...
>
> What I don't understand is why people want to upgrade just because
> something has new features when they don't use 90%+ of the current
> features.  At what point does what you have become good enough?
>
>      -- Alma
>

"More is better.  Change is progress.  The computer is your friend."

New stuff makes the average consumer (in the United States, at least) feel 
current, important and powerful.  For this purpose, having is more important 
than using.  This mentality facilitates more flexible definitions of "planned 
obsolescence".  When a monopoly stifles innovation, **something** must keep 
the money flowing.  In a slow economy, it becomes even more important.

I'm sounding cynical again.  I'll stop.

Andrew Gould