Richard Reynolds wrote:
So im picking on an email. its been a long day/week/month and I wanna!!
I was just going to rant and press the delete key but if you can read
this then I decided why not Im gona send it anyways just to see what
happens
Risk is only for the small fry, dontcha know.
YEA I know!!!
Please note: this is different from "we should take their money."
While I am no Microsoft fan, I do not want to see them brought down.
I *do* want to see others helped up so that they can provide viable
alternatives.
I really dont like this viewpoint, I understand it. I just dont like it.
im in no hurry to hurt M$ in any way. and I dont understand why anyone
should get a help up!! sounds just like many completely broken social
policies.
Well, it depends upon how you go about it.
Let's look at gas/energy policy. We're currently at the mercy of a
bunch of selfish, self-absorbed warlords who happen to be sitting on a
bunch of black stuff.
So, how do we address this? Well, we can create all kinds of arcane
laws about fuel efficiency, energy rebates for alternative sources, etc.
These provide all kinds of loopholes for all manner miscreants.
Or, we can institute a 5 cent per gallon gas tax increase every month,
forever. After a couple of years, people will adjust the economy to the
price and crude oil fluctuations will be a blip in the overall price.
Both solutions are a help to alternatives to oil. However, one
specifies specific behaviors and is doomed to failure while the other
sets up a framework for the populace to make the appropriate choice.
pre-microsoft computers were a pain.
microsoft did what they had to do to fix it.
and regardless of your like for them or dislike of them, they did alot.
I disagree with you here. People avoided Microsoft Windows and
applications for a *LONG* time. Somehow, those computers weren't *that*
much of a pain. Microsoft engaged in quite a lot of shady business
practice to drive those things out.
Nothing M$ has done has stoped superior products from being
developed yet I dont see a whole lot of superior products (its my rant,
I know there are a few and I use them daily).
The evidence is against you here. Sorry.
DOS alternatives, DOS utilities, filesystem compression/extenders,
operating systems (BeOS and OS/2), removing NT from things other than
x86 to solidify their market (other things ran on alternative
architectures--can't have that), application software that Microsoft
crushed and then abandoned (the length of time before Internet Explorer
got updated after they crushed all viable competition is just the most
visible), patenting interchange formats, etc. Microsoft wiped out
*lots* of superior things with shady business practices, hiring away
developers, or, if they absolutely had to, buying the company and
effectively letting it rot.
So, how do you fix this without being anti-Microsoft? Well, if you look
at many hardware things, the government requires a "second source". A
similar "second source" requirement for operating systems and software
would handle the issue as well without doing things like banning
commercial software.
This is, in fact, the fight Microsoft is currently engaging in
surrounding OOXML.
is a choice always a good thing?
Almost always. In certain cases, we decide to limit the choice not
because choice is inherently bad but because the resources required to
create the choice are problematic. See: cable companies. Cable
companies weren't granted a monopoly because lack of choice was good,
but because digging up the roads and stringing cable was more disruptive
that providing that choice.
Of course, that decision looks quite poor in retrospect. Had the cities
allowed lots of different people to lay in fiber, we would have had
crappy roads for a while, but now we wouldn't be arguing about network
neutrality.
and so we sit here ranting about how M$ did us wrong because we have no
choice, pick any other area besides operating systems and you see it
EVERY DAY, how many of us complain there. better yet how many do
anything about it.
Excuse me, but practically every person on this list *is* doing
something about it. Every day.
-a
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