From - Sat May 10 11:22:38 1997 Path: world2.bellatlantic.net!out2.nntp.cais.net!in1.nntp.cais.net!news.mathworks.com!news-peer.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.net.uk!nntpfeed.doc.ic.ac.uk!sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk!dundee.ac.uk!usenet From: Peter Clinch Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer,comp.lang.java.advocacy,comp.lang.java.misc,comp.lang.java.api Subject: Re: Micro$oft hinders technology progress Date: Thu, 05 Dec 1996 09:07:28 +0000 Organization: University of Dundee Lines: 34 Message-ID: <32A690D0.160E@dundee.ac.uk> References: <57fkh5$mn5@nnrp1.news.primenet.com> <57igd7$qcc@portal.gmu.edu> <57kgvu$fk0@news.cloud9.net> <57qp2v$6qq@calum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca> NNTP-Posting-Host: tigger.dundee.ac.uk Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (X11; I; SunOS 5.5.1 sun4m) Xref: world2.bellatlantic.net comp.lang.java.programmer:13685 comp.lang.java.advocacy:1979 comp.lang.java.misc:4296 comp.lang.java.api:3286 Little Saint wrote: > Microsoft doesn't just steal ideas, it monoplolizes them to the point that > any other implementation of that idea is considered obsolete even if that > implementation is superior. This hinders advancement. How can any > othewer developer be successful when the second they come up with a new > technology, MS sucks it up for themselves and markets it as their own. In > the Mac market I can name at least two word processors that are superior > to Word (WordPerfect happens to be one). But many people use Word only > because it comes form the great Microsoft and they think anything MS sells > is the best. Microsoft isn't about development, they're about marketing. They're not *about* either. Being a commercial concern, they're *about* making money, as are Sun, HP, IBM, Compaq, Dell, DG, Amdahl, Gateway, SGI, DEC etc. etc. Since they exist to make money, they can hardly be blamed for working out the most effective way to do it and sticking to it. If everybody *insists* on jumping into bed with them (as pretty much everyone does to at least some extent) they're hardly going to say, "no no, OS/2's better than 95, you should develop for that" or something similar, are they? IBM used to be about "nobody got fired for buying IBM", and they sucked. Since the mystique was broken, their products have got much better. Let's just hope this happens with MS, so people can buy their good products (they have several) on merit and ignore their bad ones (they have several) as dogs, just like every other company. Pete. -- Peter Clinch Dundee University & Teaching Hospitals Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 3637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net p.j.clinch@dundee.ac.uk http://www.dundee.ac.uk/MedPhys/