I think that you have taken my comments out of context. I was responding to
the thought that the best technology cum technology should win. I was
saying that sometimes, the best 'solution' may not be the best technology.
And in fact, sometimes poor technology serves as a cultural stepping stone
'requred' for user acceptance. People are certainly not rational.
Sometimes, they choose the second-best solution just cause it "feels
better", not cause it is better.
>From one side, you could say that they should have just chosen the better
technology. From another side you might say that if they had chosen the
better technology they may never have adopted anything (cause it would not
have felt comfortable and they would have dumped it before realizing the
potential) and the whole technology revolution may not have happened at all
(I know this is an exaggertion to make the point). :)
I personally think that Microsoft made it "feel comfortable" for non-techies
to adopt tecnology. The fact that they did adopt technology in droves
created a domino effect which sped up the information revolution beyond all
expectations.
All that said, I don't want to come off as a Micorsofty....cause I am not.
I would like to stay focussed on advocating Perl here. The point is not
whether or not Mocrosoft is bad, but what can we learn from the success of
Microsoft to better push Perl.
PS: It sounds like you have a cool grandma!!! :)
-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Brian [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2001 9:58 AM
To: Selena Sol
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: Interesting, MS has decided that perl is "viral"?
> And anyway, who is to say that the best technology 'should' be measured
with
> technology goggles on. Maybe the best technology is that which makes
itself
> widely accepted by people like my grandmother.
That doesn't make much sense. Your grandmother (or mine, at least) is no
more capable of making sound technology choices than she is of telling me
what stocks to buy. We are talking about technology here, right? If the
aforementioned CIOs are less interested in good technology than they are
in good marketing, they aren't very good CIOs. Bad technology well
marketed is still bad technology. No magic there.
> Maybe Microsoft is the best thing that could have ever happened to the
> computer industry....
Maybe my grandma invented symbolic links.
