I appreciate what you're saying, but I fear that conclusive evidence for life on Mars would just be one more thing for creationists to denounce as part of their supposed "evolutionist conspiracy".
I was going to say, what happens when something goes wrong... but then I realized two things:
If you're dealing with someone who couldn't possibly cope with Linux, they probably wouldn't be able to fix a Windows problem on their own either, and they'd be calling you anyway; and,
If the problem doesn't affect their ability to dial onto the Internet, you might be able to fix their problem remotely, without having to walk them through "click on the OK button... no, not the Cancel button!... okay, now go to the Options tab...".
It's not that there's no incentive to make things interoperatable -- there is. The problem is that, when you interoperate, there has to be some common base to work from -- as some wise man once said, "The wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from."
Or to put it another way, there have traditionally been so many different window managers, toolkits, etc., etc., etc., each of which had their own way of setting preferences, that there was no hope of picking a One True Configuration Mechanism that everyone could write to.
Come to think of it, you do have a point after all. After all, the Linux community has been able to standardize on things when it really wanted to. It's just that a standard UI has been a low priority (as well as being something which tends to be highly personal, and thus has resisted standardization).
Personally, I have hopes that KDE and GNOME will change this. If one writes a Linux app, checks for one of these being present, and uses its settings to pick colors, widget styles, fonts, etc., one's app will respect the user's global config settings on a (comparatively) large proportion of Linux boxen. (I'm a bit ignorant on the guts of these things, but it might be possible even to support KDE and GNOME, at least partially -- at least up to using common colors and fonts (common widgets may be too much to hope for).)
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In fairness, it's hard to tell the difference in this case. Only MS is usually a little bit more subtle about broadcasting their real intentions.
I appreciate what you're saying, but I fear that conclusive evidence for life on Mars would just be one more thing for creationists to denounce as part of their supposed "evolutionist conspiracy".
Be sure you take it out in one-dollar bills. You get much more paper for starting your fireplace with, that way.
Or did you imagine you could buy stuff with money if the fewmets hit the windmill?
Ever try looting in 60 below weather? :)
I don't suppose it's too much to expect to ask poeple* to use the word "bias" correctly is it?
The correct usage of the word in that context is to say that the article is biased.
* By USENET regulations, all spelling and grammar flames must contain similar errors.
Even a spell checker doesn't solve all your problems, as this classic poem demonstrates:
Owed Two the Spell Checker
So... never mind.
Plus it's still pretty raw. =)
It's not that there's no incentive to make things interoperatable -- there is. The problem is that, when you interoperate, there has to be some common base to work from -- as some wise man once said, "The wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from."
Or to put it another way, there have traditionally been so many different window managers, toolkits, etc., etc., etc., each of which had their own way of setting preferences, that there was no hope of picking a One True Configuration Mechanism that everyone could write to.
Come to think of it, you do have a point after all. After all, the Linux community has been able to standardize on things when it really wanted to. It's just that a standard UI has been a low priority (as well as being something which tends to be highly personal, and thus has resisted standardization).
Personally, I have hopes that KDE and GNOME will change this. If one writes a Linux app, checks for one of these being present, and uses its settings to pick colors, widget styles, fonts, etc., one's app will respect the user's global config settings on a (comparatively) large proportion of Linux boxen. (I'm a bit ignorant on the guts of these things, but it might be possible even to support KDE and GNOME, at least partially -- at least up to using common colors and fonts (common widgets may be too much to hope for).)