🚀 go-pugleaf

David C. Wright wrote:
> 
> In group alt.fan.bill-gates, article <32F92E...@boeing.com>,
> Chris Beamis <christophe...@boeing.com> wrote:
> 
> ...
> 
> >There has been some work regarding complex dynamical systems which is
> >relevant to this
> >question.  One paper even used the VHS vs. Betamax story as an example.
> >I don't have
> >the paper handy and can't remember the journal or author's.  Has anyone
> >else read any
> >of this research?  I seem to remember that the author's said something
> >about how VHS got
> >just a tiny bit of lead over Betamax, and the nonlinear system dynamics
> >were such that
> >this was enough to make VHS dominate, irrespective of marketing or
> >technology.  I think
> >they said that technologyies were not sufficiently different to
> >influence the system.
> 
> The reason why VHS won out over Betamax, and why PCs won out over the
> Amiga, and why Microblorp won out over Unix are not a secret.  They are
> simple common-sense.
> 
> In every case, the winner won out with a product that was widely available
> at a very low price, and was typically drool-proof.  Ergo even a cretin
> could learn to use it.  Perfect for the American public. In every case,
> their products require little or no intelligence on the part of the
> end-user.  In every case these products are available anywhere.  In every
> case, these products are cheap (in the case of MS products, they are
> included with the computer, which, from the consumer's point of view, makes
> them free).
> 
> With videotape and PCs, the winner was the one that farmed out the
> technology to third-party manufacturers, and allowed market pressure to
> drive the price down, while the loser was the one with the more
> sophisticated technology that kept it proprietary and commensurately more
> expensive.  In the end, the cheap thing will win in America, regardless of
> whether or not it works.
> 
> Case in point:  I own an amiga.  I recently upgraded my PC to a 586/100
> with 32 MB and 2Gb of disk space and Win95.  When I did that, it became my
> favored machine.  Prior to that, it was a 486/25 with 4Mb and 220 Mb of
> disk space and Dos/Windows. When it was in that configuration, my Amiga was
> my favored machine because it was much faster, more user-friendly, and more
> efficient.  My Amiga (to this day) has a Motorola 68000 processor, 3Mb of
> memory, and 145 Mb of hard disk, with AmigaDos 1.2.
> 
> The point being that my PC has become my favored machine when it's power
> and resources reached *an order of magnitude* more than my Amiga had.  At
> that point, it became better.  The odd thing is that my PC, at it's order
> of magnitude greater resources, is *still* cheaper than my vanilla,
> original Amiga 2000.  The problem is that, if the Amiga technology had won
> out, what I would have on my desktop would be the equivalent of a
> Hewlett-Packard series 800 workstation, which is far and away more than I
> even use professionally (I have a series 700 workstation at work).
> 
> The public has been jimmied with inferior technology and lousy software,
> but they are happy because they can use it, and it's cheap.  They have
> nice, simple, drool-proof computers that can be utilized by the moron
> public.  I'm not complaining - I maintain these shit-brindle systems, and
> make a very good living at it.  In a sense, Bill Gates has assured my
> career for as long as I want it, because PCs are fundamentally broken, and
> I can fix them.  However, as a dedicated hacker, I still complain that the
> most popular system is still the shittiest system available, because I *do*
> have to maintain them.  If the PC and Microgliph had not won out, I would
> probably be out of a job.
> 
> --
>                David C. Wright (wri...@autobahn.mb.ca)
>                   http://www.autobahn.mb.ca/~wrightd
> 
>      An honest politician is one who, when bought, stays bought.

Hear hear! I think this is the ultimate (and best orated) argument on
this topic in this entire thread (and, I should think, the entire
Usenet)......

-- 
Any posts or replies, past or present, are not indication or statement
of the position of Federated Department Stores on any subject, unless
otherwise explicitly stated. They are only my own; this should be
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Gregory Junker - Systems Development
Federated Department Stores