Re: What they're up to

[Mitch Stone <mstone@vc.net>]

  In reply to Daniel Strychalski's message sent 11/26/97 1:55 AM:
  
  >Microsoft products make people look stupid, feel stupid and work stupidly.
  >Since the firm has the resources to create products that do otherwise, we
  >must consider the possibility that it has assigned itself a mission quite
  >different from what we assume or the company claims its mission to be.
  
  >Long before Windows, long before the Mac, many people who lacked any trace
  >of technical knowledge were going great guns on computers. When I hear BG3
  >say on Larry King Live, "I used to tell my relatives to stay away from
  >computers because computers were too hard," and I see software and
  >documentation obviously designed to flummox people, I get real suspicious
  >about what Microsoft considers its mission.
  >
  An interesting point. The same remarks were made about the phone company, 
  before the breakup of AT&T. Remember the old Lily Tomlin line from 
  Laugh-in? ("We don't have to care, we're the phone company.") The closer 
  Microsoft comes to being a true monopoly, the more they are able to dole 
  out whatever slop the hogs will eat.
  
  >> ....They plainly have the resources to do it right, but insist on
  >> developing software that only techophiles could really love.
  >
  >Well, there are technophiles and there are technophiles. Those easily
  >dazzled by commercial gimmickry might love Microsoft products. Those
  >interested in real progress definitely do not.
  
  True, but the vast majority of people are found in neither category. Fact 
  is, most important technology begins as "gimmickry," but eventually 
  becomes essential. I believe there is a strong impulse among technofiles 
  to keep us dependent upon their know-how. Microsoft (a company run by 
  technophiles) is simply offering us a variation on this theme.
  
     Mitch Stone
  +---
     I think a lot.
          -- Bill Gates  
  
     Boycott Microsoft ** http://www.vcnet.com/bms