Brian.Henderson@xxxxxxxx wrote:
I don't dislike M$ (or Apple) because I have problems with their
software, I just don't like them as a "person". They've got a bad
attitude and I don't want them getting any more of my money.
It all comes back to the corporations-as-sociopath idea.
It was summed up a century and more ago by Lord Acton: all power tends
to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. If you have an
open and varied market, there's a chance that some company may say,
"We cannot please everybody, but we can create (and make a decent
profit selling) a niche product for `fit audience though few.'" But if
a company has an effective monopoly, then it is not necessarily
wicked, it might even be sensible, for it to say: "We're wasting time
and money supporting these troglodytes who want to run old
applications."
But the variety of mental habits and ways of working in the human race
is virtually infinite; one size doesn't and will never fit all. That's
why monopolies are dangerous; they can seduce even a decent
corporation into disregarding that variety; in this case, people who
don't take well to GUIs but want a command line and text.
The problem with Redmond is that Big Brother Bill is absolutely sure
that he knows what you want better than you do. I can put up with
someone trying to tell me what I need. But not what I want. I know
that for myself.
--
Patricia M. Godfrey
PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx