Re: [ossig] So Iraq will have a US-developed CDMA system?? Asks The Register

[Christopher DeMarco <cdemarco@fastmail.fm>]

"Charles F. Moreira" <cfm@pc.jaring.my> writes:

> Microsoft's  dominance could  come apart  if someone,  somewhere could
> come up with an  international standard specification for an operating
> system  which software  developers could  comply with  -- and  that my
> friends would  enable real  competition -- just  like you can  buy any

POSIX,  UNIX98...  what  are  these,  then,  if  not  "international  OS
specifications"?!?  

> However,  especially   the  software  part  of  the   IT  industry  is
> nortoriously unable to agree on standards, unlike engineers like those
> in the  IEEE, ISO  and ITU who  are able  to sit down  and work  out a
> standard.

You're comparing apples to oranges.  By your logic, BMW and Mazda should
be at  fault for  not having interchangable  head gaskets.   The correct
analogy is  that Microsoft & Sun,  BMW & Mazda,  have no responsibility,
ethical or pragmatic, to make vendor/platform-neutral components.  While
on the other hand, an  academic/research group like IEEE, ISO, etc. must
(ethically   and  pragmatically)   operate  in   an   open,  peer-review
environment exactly the same  way that the mathematicians and physicists
and chemists do who come up  with the formulae and processes used by BMW
and Mazda to design & manufacture their products.  

> Also  thanks to  IBM  not patenting  the  design for  its  IBM PC,  it
> advertantly  or inadvertantly  gave  the world  an  open standards  PC
> architecture which any Tom, Dick, Harry, Ah Chong or Mydin could build
> a compliant PC  and back then, Microsoft was there  at the right place
> and right time to benefit from the explosion in PCs which was about to
> take place back and is now still laughing all the way to the bank as a
> result.

I will  note that both GNU/Linux  and *BSD were similarly  "at the right
place  and  right  time"  to  take  advantage  of  the  ubiquitous  open
architecture, and that some people (notably Neal Stephenson in his essay
"In       The      Beginning       Was      The       Command      Line"
[http://www.cryptonomicon.com/beginning.html]    have    credited    MS'
popularity driving the PC explosion with sowing the seeds for the coming
OSSOS (hah!) explosion.


But how exactly is MS' success  in taking advantage of the PC an example
of
> ]...]the  same  "winner  takes  all"  policy  in  the  US  information
> technology industry[...]
other than that  US-bashing is very much in vogue  these days?  


-- 
% You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike.
  Christopher DeMarco
  cdemarco@fastmail.fm
  +6013 389 5658


------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe: send mail to ossig-request@mncc.com.my
with "unsubscribe ossig" in the body of the message