I Don't want to use MS

[Mark Hinds <zoro@tc.fluke.com>]

  >To David Sarna especially,
  >
  >Some of us don't ever want IE 3.xx, IE 4.xx or IE xxx.xx  on our hard
  >drives.  Never.  Don't you get it?  I have already posted my main reasons.
  >However I did want a program to keep Win95 from crashing.  
  >
  >Claire Macdonald
  >
  
  I do not want to use MS stuff either. I also don't like anchovies
  in my pizza. Is that OK? I think that MS thinks not. They
  are and have been intentionally crippling the interoperability
  of other platforms with their own specifically to squeeze out
  alternatives. No this is not OK. They are coercing HW
  manufactures to do their bidding, making it increasingly more
  difficult for ordinary users to buy machines without their products.
  
  Now the real point. It may be difficult or impossible to
  stop MS from holding excessive dominance in the Info biz,
  but it is imperative that MS be stopped from locking out
  alternatives. If we really care about keeping the alternatives
  alive then we must focus on 4 things.
  
  1. Somehow MS must be stopped from hijacking Internet standards
     such as HTML and Java, and pushing platform specific stuff
     onto the net.
  
  2. They must be stopped from incorporating every app into
     their desktop. Why is'nt excel or work a logical extension
     of the the desktop?
  
  3. MS must be barred licensing arrangements that give than
     anything more than standard copyright protection for their
     products.
  
  4. WE must make the alternaives known. Particularly the public
     domain stuff. I do not propose that FreeBSD or Linux are
     are simply better (I believe that myself :-), but they
     are the only economically viable alternives to MS.
  
  
  PS
  This has all been IMHO :-)
  
  Mark Hinds Linux*Shmo