In the "burning question" thread, John Denker made a comment about
monopolies and industry standards, and in doing so apparently took a
shot at Microsoft.
I am no Microsoft lover. But I have to say that I am not sure what I
would do if I were in Microsoft's shoes, and I also cannot tell when
Microsoft is just being a bully versus Microsoft making progress.
Any industry is going to want to give customers more of what the
customers want. Most (all?) of the motivation is profit and/or market
share, but we also have to admit that a beneficial spin-off of companies
developing new things is that we have progress.
Industry standards sometimes get in the way of progress. If the new
services the new software provides are not compatible with the industry
standards, what should the developer do? Should the developer reveal
its new stuff and then wait for the industry standard to change? You
don't get a much market share that way.
On the other hand, many people say that Microsoft often eshews industry
standards just because it can get away with it, and it wouldn't really
have been necessary for them to ignore the standard. That is, they were
indeed acting as a bully.
I have to say that I don't feel I am in a position to judge this.
However, on the whole, it seems to me that Microsoft has done at least
as good of a job of following industry standards and also providing
backwards compatability as Apple Computer has.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics and Chemistry
Chair of Sciences
Bluffton College
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu