Quote:
Originally Posted by Brenda Archer  I don't know if you're being ironic or not, but this is pointing toward the source of the problem.
Many users will prefer an inferior product that does not permit them any choices, over a superior product that gives them more freedom to do what they want to. Making choices makes a lot of people's heads hurt. I don't pretend to understand this entirely. |
I don't know if you're being condescending or not, but this is pointing to the crux of my argument.
I've been in "the business" of PC hardware, software, networks, etc., since 1988. The one constant I have seen is the never ending battle over who's "best", which has, IMO, been the enemy of "the good". When electricity first became a commercial product around the turn of the 20th century, everyone had their own model - from the wiring to the bulbs to the wattage and amperage. If you bought "Bob's" electricity, you had to buy his wire and his bulbs and get wired to his grid. If your neighbor bought "Bill's" electricity, he did the same.
Not until standardization was "imposed" on the industry was electricity able to become widespread and the creation of electrical equipment able to explode because there was one set of standards to which all devices could be designed.
Was the "best" electrical sytem chosen? I don't know - but a standard was chosen, and the Age of Electricity blossomed because of that choice.
It took about 20-30 years for that "choice" to be made, and odd systems still held on for a time after that, but eventually died out. I'm waiting for that time frame to happen in computers for exactly the same reason - so that a standard can be adopted and we can stop fighting over who's best and let the explosion of applications take off simply because no one has to waste time and money and energy either choosing sides or trying to port their work to every OS that any garage tech ever devised.
Do you know how much of my time is spent on every goddamn project just working out the damn browser compatibility? Waste!!
Making choices "makes a lot of people's heads hurt."? Oh puh-leeze. How uber-nerd. THIS sort of "choice" wastes a lot of people's time and money and effort and creativity. I'm not complaining from my Lay-Z-Boy...I'm shaking my fist from the damn trenches.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Harvey Swenson It's not about which is best it's about which one is breaking the law, preventing competition and shutting down standards which would improve that tv set that you love so much which btw happens to use a standard that all television stations can adhere to rather than only being able to show the microsoft channel. |
Who broke the law? I remember MS being taken down a notch in the mid-90's. When were they last convicted of monopolistic practices? I may be out of the loop a bit, but if they aren't convicted, then I can't see how you or anyone else can claim criminal activity.
And as to reaching only the MS channel? Far from it. The (tacit) standardization I get from MS products gives me more options than I see from any other platform. How many products are available to MS that are not to other systems? Yes, that may be because of sheer market share - but that's a tacit form of standardization. I'd rather it be official - like UL standards - so everyone agrees. But since the computer industry seems hell-bent to shun standardization then it comes in other forms, like sheer numbers of installed units.
