Re: Return Economics html trivial debate

["Kendall G. Clark" <kclark@computek.net>]

  On Fri, 31 Oct 1997, RMT wrote:
  
  >Kendall G. Clark wrote:
  >> 
  >> With all due respect, 
  >
  >> Yeah, those Unix geeks are really at the low-end of the technology 
  >> curve, it's embarrasing. I guess the technology standard ...
  >
  [Platonic history of computing snipped]
  >
  >Yeah, the UNIX folks kept the faith while the PCs were rising,
  >but they need to get beyond line-editors on workstations and
  >discover the wonders of WYSIWYG word processing, just like 
  >Bill Gates needs to get past being "big brother" with his 
  >Windows Registry and embrace the Java.RMI object class of Java.
  
  I'm sorry but this notion that MS and its pathetic Office suite of apps
  somehow represents a cutting edge of human achievement makes me want to vomit.
  
  Talking paper clips? Correct mistakes while I type them?
  
  I'm not impressed. I'd be impressed if Word could let me work on a 100+ page
  paper w/out choking to death. I'd be impressed if it had a good
  table-of-contents generator or index-generator built-in, instead of the crap
  that it has. I'd really be impressed if it had a full-justification algorithm
  that actually produced aesthetically-pleasing results. And, wonder of wonders,
  I'd be grateful if MS would learn to play fair by making it possible for other
  programs on other platforms to use a Word file.
  
  The notion that MS is responsible for any technological achievement is
  ridiculous. Not only do they not play fair in a corporate sense, but they also
  unnecessarily push the hardware curve, without really offering any real
  innovation or improvement, such that many people and small companies and
  non-profits have an increasingly hard time keeping up. 
  
  Word processing doesn't inherently require more than a fast 486, but MS
  bloatware, with its creeping featurism, and suspect commitment to software
  engineering quality, means that you need a fast pentium and soon a fast
  pentium II to type a freakin' memo.
  
  No, you can keep your so-called wysywig word processors. I've got something
  infinitely better, cheaper (free!!), that produces better results using fewer
  computing resources. By the way, I am not a neo-Luddite. I have a 21 inch
  monitor, use a very rich GUI-environment, on a very fast system.
  
  But that doesn't mean that my brain has turned to mush and, voila, MS appears
  to me to be setting the technology standard.
  
  That is the biggest joke I've heard this week: thanks, I was needing a good
  old belly laugh.
  
  What everyone who opposes MS needs to know is that there are serious and
  viable computing alternatives to all of MS's products. That is a plain
  empirical fact. It strikes me as a kind of hypocrisy to use a computer
  pre-loaded with W95, the Exchange mail system, and the IE browser, but to
  still consider yourself against MS's hegemony.
  
  If you're still using MS products slavishly, you're as much a part of the
  problem as the solution. 
  
  We need to have a digital Boston Tea Party!!
  
  Best,
  
  	Kendall Clark 
  
  --
  Linux is free. Life is good.