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

["Charles F. Moreira" <cfm@pc.jaring.my>]

OK! After all that Christopher DeMarco has said below, why does Microsoft 
still dominate the desktop PC operating system marketplace, and why has it 
been the winner which has taken all.

As for being anti-US-imperialist, I make no apology for being anti what the 
US-imperialists are doing to Iraq right now and it's not a fad, trend or 
fashion as far as I'm concerned.

Charles F. Moreira
===================================

Quoting 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
> 
> 
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> 



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