"History is a wonderful thing, if only it was true"
-Tolstoy

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Operating Systems and Recent History

Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism, Etc.: Operating Systems and Recent History:

Good piece by Dan on history of Windoze, Mac OS & Linux and the value of competition to force ongoing improvement in products offered.

Great comment :
"This is just a repeat of the predatory pre-announcement strategy MS has been using for over 15 years: 'We swear we've learned how to Do It Right, so pleasepleaseple-e-ese put your plans to switch on hold, and just hang on until the next version. We promise it won't suck like the current one'.

And, indeed, it doesn't: instead, it sucks in new and amazing ways that require users to learn/invent entirely new strategies to protect themselves from the effects of Microsoft's screw-ups.

If this continues, some crazed administrator, driven mad by years of endless patching that never quite makes his users' PCs safe to let loose on the net, will shoot Gates at one of his keynote speaker apperances, and make history as the first successful non-spousal use of the 'Battered Wife Syndrome' defense..."

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