Author: Dann Corbit
Date: 15:31:12 11/01/98
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You're wrong about Microsoft. NT is a robust OS. Windows products help real people get their real work done much easier. I have been programming computers since 1976 and I see the real productivity increases. Almost all of them are fostered by technology MS made available. The Linux freaks just don't get it. It is a better OS in many ways than NT and clearly much better than Windows 95 (despite the fact that little useful consumer tools exist -- that is also the fault of Linux and copyleft software in general, the way they are constructed makes it impossible to make money safely using them). [Please send flames by email, Linux lovers -- advocacy threads are always a total bore] But a person would be foolish to write commercial tools for Linux using copyleft software. I can prove to anyone who knows a shred about math that it is economic suicide. The only tool that can come about are free ones. Crafy and Xboard are great, but you cousin Elmer is not going to be able to install them on Linux. It takes computer saavy to do that. Hence, Microsoft and OS/2 together with commercial UNIX systems are the only games in town. Many people foolishly believe that Microsoft dominates simply because they are big. They dominate because they offer what people want. I also think that Chessbase could be the CP/M of chess. It had its heyday and then vanished. It is defintely too early to tell. Trying to predict trends is mathematically unstable past the end of the data points. Look at the big fuss caused by Marx and Engels trying to predict what would happen because of economic injustice. They were right about the injustice, but not about the inevitable outcome. You can't make long-lasting predictions beyond the end of the data. I also don't think that it is certain that Microsoft will dominate forever. If someone else with resources uses their brain-pan, it could eventually supplant even a giant like that. CP/M was the biggest thing in town. Where is it now? Micorosoft could become the next CP/M. But you will have to deliver more than technical prowess. You will have to give people what they want.
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