A little more on this [mom using the computer]. I think WINDOWS is WAAAY to hard for a [fill in name here] to use. I have very intelligent people call me with problems that should be simple, that I cannot help them with. The only difference is that windows came on their machine, marketing claims to do what they think they need it to do, so they run it. If MS did not have a super majority in the market (regardless of how it got that), people would clamor for a host of issues (security, reliability, cost, honesty, consumer protective licensing, interoperability, whateveryourbeefis). If MS, MAC, Sun, and Red-Hat had equal number of machines running their software on it at the CompUSA, consumer demand would be different. So saying "if the mass market wanted it" really does not play at the moment. The mass market is currently told what it wants in a large way. I agree with many (including Spaf) that the market needs to demand more "things" (issues), but currently the lever arm is small. Look at the American Car Industry. It too a long time, extremely long compared to "Internet Time" for the Big 3 to offer seat belts, rear shoulder belts, fuel efficient cars, etc. Some of this was regulated, some driven by foreign competition. So much of the criticism leveled at MS is valid, and accurate. Articles defending their past behavior really don't hold much water, especially since they "apologized" for past issues recently. The real issues is can they really change going forward. The 1972ish Plymouth Duster was considered a "small" car by Detroit. Looking at comparable foreign cars, that was laughable. But it was "what the market demanded" according the Plymouth. This was in a time where OPEC was showing its might, and there was cars, and foreign cars. I wonder what MS will next declare "what the market wants." On Wed, 2002-04-10 at 09:57, Seth Arnold wrote: > On Tue, Apr 09, 2002 at 04:30:37PM -0700, Crispin Cowan wrote: > > I think you are misconstruing what I was saying. I know that UNIX is > > waaay too difficult for your mom/receptionist/CEO to use. > > As an aside, every time anyone makes this claim, I like to point out > that the original use of Unix[1] was actually secretaries writing > documents. I hope that we, as a species, haven't lost our adaptability > to new techniques, or even old techniques. :) > > Cheers > > > [1]: Discounting the Space Trek game that was the actual driving force > behind the very first version of Unix... :) > > -- > http://sardonix.org/ -- Zot O'Connor http://www.ZotConsulting.com http://www.WhiteKnightHackers.com
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