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File Extensions And Monopolies

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the stuff-to-think-about dept.

A_Non_Moose sent us an article from Salon that talks about how file extensions are one of the tools used by Microsoft to extend their mind and market share. It's a very simple idea but its honestly something I'd never thought about. Definitely worth a read, and a few neurons to realize how its really the simplest of things that will guarantee that this monopoly isn't stopped even if Microsoft's deep pockets didn't let them buy the law.

4 of 881 comments (clear)

  1. Re:CLI by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 4, Funny

    We don't need no stinkin' file extensions!

    Really? You don't put ".c" at the end of C source files? Hmmm. I used those kind of extensions under UNIX ten years ago.

  2. Re:Yea, it's really hard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny



    Right, now I'm going to call your mom and ask her to make winamp the default mp3 player instead of realaudio. I think she'll have to use a life-line, so get ready for that call :)

  3. Re:Monopoly for the illiterate... by wfrp01 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Exactly. I can see it now... In an effort to please each and every technophobe's desire to have their all-important feature be only one click away, Microsoft releases "Windows Flat". No menus. No directory trees. No dialogs. Instead, each and every pixel is assigned a function.

    Oh my god, I better go patent this...

    --

    --Lawrence Lessig for Congress!
  4. Re:Its not just MS . . . by dimator · · Score: 5, Funny

    Open COMMAND.COM with PSP?

    I'll save you the trouble: it's porn.

    --
    python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"