🚀 go-pugleaf

In this thread, a good number of people have written a great deal:

Hi!

Let me add my tuppence worth from a UK perspective.

Let me first say I don't think anyone will bring down MS or Bill Gates. Some
say he's a visionary - I happen to think he is a talented opportunist who
was in the right place at the right time, and exploited his opportunity to
the full.

The fact that his QDOS was flawed, and that those flaws persist into present
day MSDOS is, I think, recognised by everyone, not least BG.

Technological evolution progresses in much the same way as natural evolution
- just think how quickly the diesel locomotive supplanted steam on US
railways once EMD came up with reliable equipment. Or the way the
transatlantic passenger trade switched from steamships to airways in a
couple of decades. Industry adapts or dies.

Closer to now, think of the eight-track tape cartridge machines and the way
the compact cassette overtook them. Or VHS versus Betamax - a case of a
poorer technology becoming predominant, which is relatively unusual. Perhaps
it was a victory by 'marketing' over 'product worth'.

The computer world has had plenty of similar examples too. Now there's
pressure for change with the coming of network computers. We've had DOS and
all its problems around for too many years, with much better systems round
the corner just waiting to take over. If they do then MS will shift to them
as well. If they fail to do so (unlikely but possible) then evolution will
do to them what it did to the dinosaurs.

I have mixed views on Microsoft's products in terms of functionality, but my
overall impression is that many are much too large and bloated for what they
do, some of them with many functions that seem totally unnecessary. If I
have to use their products I do - I use VB regularly, and while it's not
perfect and has some flaws, it's reliable and stable and by and large does
what I want it to.

What I do not like about Microsoft, and the oligopoly they share with Intel,
is their utter, and unhealthy, dominance of the computer industry, brought
about perhaps by another victory for their marketing people. The cure for
this is some *real* competition, and a cheap, lean and efficient network
computer may be just the thing to stimulate it.

One of the things that's kept the UK relatively stable is that we often use
humour against people and organisations which are getting too big for their
boots or are riding roughshod over us (like our present government), and if
the humour's sufficiently barbed and to the point then it can produce
worthwhile results! That's true for the USA too - for example MAD magazine
was always a beacon of irreverent lampoonery, mostly directed at commercial
targets, and was enjoyed by many of us in the UK too.

Let's not unite to *destroy* Microsoft - let's just take the mickey out of
them where and when it's justified. That's much more fun and a dam' sight
less frustrating.

BTW I'm running a UK Acorn RISC PC with a 486 PC card inside - the best of
both worlds, I think. But that's my choice - yours may differ and so be it.

Good wishes,

Iain

-- 

Iain Logan, Langholm, Dumfriesshire (also 10033...@compuserve.com)
http://homepages.enterprise.net/iainlogan/