I hadn't thought of that.
It's not that I criticize Gate/MS for making money or being the first or
best to use a particular business strategy. My income is derive, at least
in part, from using MS technology.
My annoyance and disgust is with such things as the MS policy of upgrades.
I started out with a 386 based machine running DOS 5 or so and Windows 3.11.
The computer dealer didn't bother to include the original disks and when it
came time to move to the next version of Windows, the upgrade was about half
the price of the full version. I had registered my software when I got the
computer but that didn't get me a full version of the new software at the
upgrade price. I got the Upgrade. When I was, for reasons unknown to me,
unable to start DOS or Windows I had to reformat the hard drive. Upon
reinstalling, I didn't have a starting version of the software, so the
upgrade didn't do me any good because there was nothing to upgrade. I
couldn't afford the full version of the new Windows program so I learned the
DOS commands and didn't run any Windows programs. Eventually, I came up
with the full version of Windows.
Other peeves include the transformation of MS documentation manuals into
advertisements for the product they're supposed to describe. I don't need
to know how Windows95 is going to take me where I want to go, I need the
manual to tell me how to use the product.
To their credit, MS has unified a great deal of software conventions ("alt +
F then P" brings up a print menu in most windows based programs I know) and
has produced software at low enough price that the general population can
afford it and software that is simple enough that the general population can
use it.
Call it a personal failing on my part but I enjoy pointing out the failings
and shortsightedness of MS and Gates.
Regards,
DM
-----Original Message-----
Pierce
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2001 2:00 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
conciousness / RE: OT : Sinclair was RE: Metalink Again
On 5 Apr 2001, at 11:01, David Messer wrote:
Date sent: Thu, 05 Apr 2001 11:01:26 -0800
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> But, Eric, I'm not out to prove anything.
Never said you were.
By "proof" I meant when two competing pieces of "factual" information
(or references to such) are posted to a public list, then questions
can, and perhaps ought to, be raised as to the veracity/legitimacy of
the sources of the information, and the nature of the "truth claims"
represented by the different perspectives in the argument.
>I'm only trying to show Gates in
> the worst light possible. My desire to do so derives from working day in
> and day out with Microsoft products.
I'm not exactly a fan of Gates/MS, and don't consider myself in
opposition to your main point, but I would suggest that if one has to
lie, deceive, or misrepresent in order to make the point, then one is
potentially exposing oneself to valid criticisms about a lack of
ethical consistency, and beyond that, the general efficacy of such
tactics.
For background on tendencies toward dysfunctional (self-defeating)
nature of "social change" paradigms (and related tendencies toward
ideological/political oppositionality), I would suggest reading Rabbi
Michael Lerner's book "Surplus Powerlessness" (related commentary at
http://www.tikkun.org/).
As I've said before, I think the sociological backdrop to the debate
about MS has to do with the conflicts in the value systems and "world
views" of:
1) the (old time) industrial strength technical/engineering "purists"
and
2) the "populists", unfortunately including Gates, that weren't
afraid to do the messy job involved in taking the technology to
the masses (cheaply).
These "opposites" are obviously an oversimplified representation of
the extreme ends of a spectrum containing more complex elements, and
also mirror pre-existing elements in broader scientific, technical
and business "subcultures".
I think that part of the reason that the tech elites and "purists"
may hate Gates so much is because they realized, to late, that they
lost a great opportunity make a lot of money in the mass market
because of the limitations that their "purist" engineering/tech
aesthetic placed on their entreprenurial vision & reach. In the era
when "big iron" and extremely expensive software reigned supreme, the
"purist" aesthetic proved to be very successful, but it wasn't
universally competitive once the feasibility of a "mass market"
approach emerged.
Ironically, the value systems of tech purists tend to align with
libertarianism (which I personally think is virtuous, at least when
seen from the perspective of a
progressive/integrative/univeralist/constructivist evolutionary model
of human conciousness based on the emergence of
transformational/transcendent archetypes, such as Ken Wilber's),
whereas PC technology essentially originally came from the great
state sponsored "establishmentarian" science and technology
development efforts in the space program and defense establishment.
On the other hand, as various people have pointed out, I could be
completely full of cr*p. :)
(apologies in advance to the old timers for duplication of info)
regards,
ep
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