On Wed, 1 Apr 1998, Wayne McGuire wrote:
[...]
:The level of uninformed emotion regarding HTML mail is quite
:extraordinary. It reminds me very much of the resistance in some quarters
:during the eighties to GUI technology.
Ad hominems like this aren't helpful. None of the people who has objected
to HTML in email is "uninformed" (Rich Pieri and Kynn Bartlett come to
mind -- two folks who are obviously very well informed).
WARNING: nothing else I say has much to do with majordomo (but I wasn't
the first)
:Regarding the competition between Unix and Windows NT: all the latest
:stats I have seen suggest that Windows is beginning to make serious
:inroads in the traditional Unix market. Bill Gates has managed to make
:$50 billion by exploiting the tendency of his competitors to
:underestimate Microsoft.
Maybe we're privy to different statistics, but I've been noticing lately
that the stats claiming MS dominance are getting smaller.
:With regard to the future majordomo: the buzz I hear is that all of
:majordomo's useful features, and many more, will be built into future
:versions of Windows. Majordomo and similar programs may well go the way
:of Trumpet Winsock.
That's funny -- on my Windows 3.1 machine I still use Trumpet Winsock.
Whatever buzz you're on, it's becoming increasingly obvious to me that
people are beginning to realise that Windows really is a joke, that
alternative OS's are better, that platform-independent standards (despite
MS's efforts, every time a new standard emerges, to pervert it) really
will prevail, and that majordomo (to keep this relevant to this list, if
ony marginally) will continue to be a useful program.
I'm not the first to say this, but, long term, Windows will absolutely not
be the dominant OS -- it's just too lousy to survive. Its success so far
has nothing to do with its quality; it has everything to do with
aggressive (not to say illegal) marketing strategies. The development of
truly platform-independent software (Java has set the example) is
obviously a threat to MS (why else would they pervert the Java standard?)
and some serious players are not going to cave in.
My perception is that MS is on the run, and will become a smaller player
in the long run, and fairly soon. (Bill G, of course, will retire a
multibillionaire regardless.)
But what do I know? :)
Patrick
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