Mail Archives: opendos/2001/02/19/20:30:56
On Mon, 19 Feb 2001, Thomas Webb wrote (excerpted here and there):
> We have Apple and MicroSoft to
> thank for the massive growth in the microcomputer industry. Without the
> "consumerization" of the technology, [...]
Remember back when people were writing in Byte magazine about how
the day might arrive of the "appliance" computer? The day when you
would buy a computer off the shelf, take it home, pull it out of the
box, plug it in, and it would work? Them days is now. Probably 99% of
computer users these days know nothing and care less about master boot
records, IDE versus SCSI controllers, overclocking, code and disk usage
bloat, or what have you.
> The reason Windoze has a virtual
> lock on the world is that it is ->MARKETED<- big time and is
> shrinkwrapped in an attractive package. Windoze is a perfect example of
> the victory of style and cosmetics over content, but it and systems like
> it will live forever because most of the buying population buys style
> and content, not substance.
Indeed. About sixty years ago, a formal academic study was made
of shorthand systems in the United States, and the conclusion was made
that Dewey Script Shorthand could meaningfully be said to be superior
to Gregg Shorthand by various metrics. But Gregg Shorthand became
nearly synonymous with "shorthand" in the US, not because it was
superior -- it wasn't -- but because John Robert Gregg simply out
hustled the competition. In a sense, Gate$ has out hustled the
competition, and the overwhelming majority of buyers don't know and
don't care that 'doze is an inferior product.
I follow some of the BeOS newsgroups, and one of the laments there
is that although most BeOS users consider it to be superior to 'doze,
it is still lagging far behind. However, there is sort of a vicious
circle effect: a lot of developers don't write for OS's like BeOS
because the user base -- and hence likelihood for profit -- is so
small, and the user base is so small in part because a lot of
developers don't write for it, so that the sorts of applications they
can easily obtain for 'doze at the local megastore just aren't
available.
I am pretty much coming to the conclusion that about the only
system likely to be able to stop the dreaded 'doze juggernaut is Linux.
Systems like DR-DOS and BeOS may have small loyal followings, but I
expect that along with Applesauce they will never (again) amount to
much. Sigh. :-(
--
Paul mailto:bartlett AT smart DOT net
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Paul O. Bartlett, P.O. Box 857, Vienna, VA 22183-0857, USA
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