On Wed, May 11, 2011 at 9:22 AM, Tim <ignored_mailbox@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Wed, 2011-05-11 at 08:32 -0700, James McKenzie wrote: >> Would any of us go to a major computer manufacturing company and >> DEMAND the same thing that we DEMAND of software? That is: Give me >> your latest/greatest for free? > > Well, I wish more people would do with computer industries as we expect > of other companies. When you sell me a product, it had better bloody > work properly and safely. If you sell me a dodgy product, you (the > company) have to fix it at your cost. > Agreed. > Or would you (the customer) like to shoulder the additional burden of > fixing up your *new* car's lousy design having crappy brakes, fuel > injection, seat belts, or anything else? Simply because the > manufacturer doesn't give a damn about the product actually being any > good. > Nope. However, we seem to tolerate this in the software industry. > Microsoft, et al, probably even the entire computer industry, have > justly earned the contempt that they receive. Decades of experience, > billions of dollars, and still a continual cock-up. Yep. I've been through the MS-DOS 4.0 mess and the WindowsME mess and ..... >> >> And no, I don't mind that they are going to take it 'propriatary' >> either. They have to do something above and beyond the standard to >> make us want to purchase it. > > I do, I mind that a lot. At home, I have one telephone on my desk, and > I can ring anybody on the world with it, no matter what telephone > network that they're on. That is because their are strict standards on how a phone MUST work. Not so for most of our in-use computer products. There are only two standards that have existed over the years: ISA (created by IBM) and the connectors that are in use. Everything else is a "Request for Comment" type document. This is how we ended up with the mess we have today. Back in the 'simple' days, one port -> one product. SMTP is a good example, HTTP is another. Look at the number of ports needed for some of the products I work with on a daily basis and they use dozens if not hundreds. > > We've had a decade of that incompatibility crap with all the different > instant messaging schemes, and people just will not learn how dumb, > stupid, moronic, idiotic, annoying, absolutely brain dead that attitude > is. Build a better mousetrap and people will flock to your door. This is what happened with Instant Messaging. However, you cannot move without loosing something. And people don't like that. Just changing Internet Service Providers proves to be a lengthy process. The same may happen when people leave Skype for another service like Vonage. And I'm not arguing that this is a good or bad thing, it is the way we've boxed ourselves in. James McKenzie -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
