7 Mar
2001
7 Mar
'01
10:05 a.m.
Why fault Microsoft for making products that are
popular and
common?
Their products' popularity and commonness is largely *not* a
result of the product's quality. (2) Their
products are designed for idiots.
So... I'm an idiot because I use MS products? Computers are
tools for smart people. Should we let evolution
gradually filter out stupid people from the species, or should
we allow them to be our least common denominator, thereby
limiting the power of the species as a whole?
I also take exception to your assertion that computers are for "smart"
people. Let's see... Not so many years ago, the consensus was that
freedom was only for white people, that voting was only for men, and
[fill in the blank with your favorite excluded activity / group]. There was also a time where you had to be a mechanic
in order to
drive because the cars were unrelyable and difficult to maintain.
Should we exclude every one from driving that can't rebuild an
engine or tear down a transmission.
No, but they *are* effectively excluded from rebuilding their engine or tearing
down their transmission.
Let's see... Like the rest of us, you probably
watch TV on
occassion. Is there anyone on this list (Tony excluded) that could
build one from scratch? Does that mean no-one else should be allowed
to watch TV? Let's see... If you can't cook, you shouldn't be
allowed to eat... If you can't sew, you shouldn't be allowed to wear
clothes... If you can't swim, you shuldn't be allowed to bathe...
It's not really about what should be _allowed_, but about what can be _done_.
If you can't build a TV from scratch, then you probably can't, well, build a TV
from scratch. If you can't cook, you probably
can't cook. If you can't swim,
you probably can't swim. If any of
these seriously interfered with your
fitness to survive (as intelligence does), then you would be on the losing end
of the evolutionary spectrum.
(3) Their
software engineers have given far too much design
control to their marketing droids.
Bull Shit... Without marketing, WINDOWS would have a f***ing command
line interface and only the eliteist "smart" people (like yourself)
would be entitled to use it. Marketing is just as important to software engineering
as developers
are.
No they aren't. I can 'engineer' equally good programs with or without the
presence of marketroids -- if they stay out of my way. If they try to
interfere, inevitably the quality of the result is decreased.
--
Jeffrey S. Sharp
jss(a)ou.edu
"One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft advertisement
"Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer" - Adolf Hitler