Coool. I just wanted to make sure the other side was represented in this, because there *is* another side.
I also watched, starting in 1995, Netscape miss every opportunity to be creative, to lead the rest of the industry in independence of Microsoft, and also admonished them, while preaching restraint for Microsoft, the opposite for Netscape.
There's no excuse, imho, for not presenting a good alternate for users and developers. When we lose to Microsoft it's not only because they are hugely agressive, it's also because the rest of us are hugely passive.
Yesterday on Scripting News I asked "What are you willing to give up today?"
There's a lot more to say about that, and I plan to say it.
Dave
----- Original Message -----From: Chat ClussmanSent: Wednesday, July 04, 2001 11:17 AMSubject: Re: [smart-tags] Kodak's 'technical difficulties' with MicrosoftChris Kaminski wrote:
> thus spake Dave Winer:
>> I read the article too and came away with a different impression. Kodak was
>> naive and didn't anticipate the shift in their market quickly enough and
>> failed to put down bets on other ways to get to their users. There's no law
>> that says that the Kodak brand has to survive the transition to digital
>> technology. They had to be smart.
>
> [edited]
>
> I don't know, and I'm not sure anyone outside MS knows. I am, however,
> beginning to see a pattern of pernicious behavior on the part of Windows XP
> which is changed after protest. MS then claims that's what they intended all
> along. Maybe that's true, but it looks a lot like they're testing the limits
> with XP, seeing exactly what they can get away with, who will try to stop
> them and how. It looks a bit like reconnaissance so they know how to proceed
> further with future versions.
I'm going to have to agree with Chris on this. I'm not a software
developer, but I am a software user. When I install software on a machine
running a current version of Windows it will usually ask me if I want it to
be the default. What I gather from the article is that this functionality
was removed from XP, then added back later. Microsoft says it always
intended it to work that way. But then, why remove it in the first place?
There could have been technical issues they were working on but Chris is
right, there is an obvious pattern of behaviour emerging with Microsoft and
Windows XP.
You said yourself Dave: "I've been writing essays since 1995 that urge
Microsoft to show restraint, and this is the first time they've ever done
it, that I know."
At this point it certainly looks as though they are seeing just how much
they can get away with. (Push. Push. Push. Backlash. Back-up some. Ok.
Good.) I'm starting to think we didn't win anything with the removal of
Smart Tags.
--
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Chat Clussman
website: http://www.clussman.com
email: chat@...
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