...sometimes it helps to know the issues on which you are commenting.
Granted, some of the points may have been distateful, but a majority of them had to do with watering down American history...to the point that history before 1900 was close to being irrelevant.
* Dropping out the "discovery" of America by Chris Columbus (I know, it's really the "West Indies" on which he landed) * Removing references to "Christmas" as the celebration of Jesus' birth, BUT adding the Hindu holiday of "Diwali" * Citizens of the US no longer...texts would talk of "global citizenry" * Free Enterprise" = BAD ; "Capitalism" = BAD ; BAD = "Imperialism" "Social Justice" = GOOD ; "Political Correctness" = GOOD
Yeah, many of us may not like all of the changes that were passed, but some of US history may have been salvaged.
Whatever you may think of the process or the results, our history, and that history of the founders of the US, is just as important as knowing how many provinces and territories make up Canada, or the complete lineage of Queen Elizabeth II, back to Harold himself. Every country has it's history, and that's important, but not any more important than retaining the history of the U.S.A.
The parent lobs a grenade for one side of the issue; but doesn't pick up the rest of the story. 704 responses so far...a few actually make good points.
From what I understand, the "publishers" run these textbooks by these state Public Education committees to get feedback and "diurection" as to what should be included in the texts our kids will be reading and studying. At this point, I think it's Texas and California to whom these publishers sell the majority of their wares...and most states have abdicated to those two princiuples. To make matters worse (if it is California), budget problems are impacting sales there...leaving Texas as the long pole in the tent.
This is NOT a one-sided issue...and it's been creeping along like this for years...As one of the responses brought out, the CotUS is NOT a living document, rather it is stakes driven into our soil as guidance...its' clear intent was to define what role our Federal Government was to play. But, what has happened over the last 50 years or so, is our own diversity and political correctness have shot holes in our feet. The texts editors have been slowly "removing" what I thought (way back when) were important events and references - - Like Christopher Columbus - "it is not relevant now"...
We also have to remember that these publishers utilize writers and scholars, as well as Consultants (o-o-o-o-h, bad word) to determine what should be included in the texts...to the extent that references to major events get re-defined, based on their views of "what's important". Like Christmas Day as a Holiday (Holy Day is the root words of that one), being replaced by a "nonsense" day...to avoid making a religious reference. And some other instances of dropping words from the text of the Declaration of Independence...as in "We hold these truths to be self-evident...that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights...". And creator is NOT specific. Thomas Jefferson wrote that, a man who treasured religion, but didn't want a document favoring one over another for this new country that favored one religion over another. And the Constitutional Convention started from the Declaration of Independence when they began work on the CotUS.
And also recall that the very founding settlers of this country left everything behind them in England, to escape religious persecution...
So there is also all-out war within the Texas faction; and it is many-faceted...from an insistence of RE-ESTABLISHING our fundamental "stakes" in the ground, to over-embellishing the significance of Religion in our growth and evolution as a country, to encompassing our diversity and melting pot as a nation of INDIVIDUALS from many different cultures, societies and beliefs. Individuals being the key word...Everything in the BoR is about us as a society of INDIVIDUALS, not groups. And we are one of the few, if not the only, nation, who value the individual over the society.
As George Washington said,"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."
I would trust in those words, unbleached by Political Correctness, as opposed to any I have heard recently...
Common sense comes in through "Common Man" theory, I believe. The issue you state is a fundamental difference in what we would like the law to do, and what it does. On the SCOTUS is emblazoned the phrase "EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER THE LAW". Equal has nothing to with what's FAIR. When one cuts a piece of pie exactly in half, that does does not take into account that one person getting a "cut" may be more hungry than the other person? Considering "hunger" in the splitting process falls into the realm of deciding "FAIR", not "EQUAL", outcomes.
The pie analogy can be used to show the difference between "fair" and "equal" - Two selfish, pre-teen siblings argue over who will get the bigger piece. The father intervenes and says to the brother "you cut the pie" and, turning to the sister, says, "you choose first".
My, that puts FAIR and EQUAL in perspective, doesn't it? Laws are meant to provide EQUAL protection, but not FAIR protection. FAIR is a MORAL issue...and it is up to each of us to decide what's fair, not the courts. But, base that decision of fairness from the "other side" of the issue, not your side.
So the real problem is $3.8 trillion of government spending. It attracts corruption, fraud, waste, opportunists, and everything else bad that people keep complaining about.
Okay, so that explains why 537 people behave the way they do. Now, what about the rest of us?
But the reality of the matter is... these idiots will keep spending until the below average half of the population is only 10% of people.
So let's see...changing the "average" point of the population will result in a smaller number of members below that point. That probably works, if you "keep" the average point through all subsequent measurements...
But the "average" changes with the segment of population being measured. No matter how you try to bend, fold, or twist the statistics, average is always the "mean": the sum of observation values divided by the number of observations.
I'm sure you meant to say "median"...right? Very different statistic...and very different implications.
Tragedy of the Commons is the system archetype, whose name is derived from the over-use and abuse of "common ground" in medieval England. The small villages there typically had a "commons", a grassy place for allowing each nearby farmer to bring in their "cow" to eat the grass...probably had something to do with the number of cows (1 per farmer), available grass, etc., and the "commons" area could meet all their needs, without grazing the land to dust. The commons benefited everybody (kinda sorta like "public domain"), without cost to any one individual. And, all common ground users cared for the common land. Because, it belonged to all, and...nobody.
Until, of course, one farmer got greedy and saw an opportunity to purchase another cow and take advantage of the "free range" grass...he now had TWO cows and could efficiently outproduce the others...giving him a bigger "market share".
Some of the others saw this and they, too, jumped on the bandwagon, each buying another cow...because it finally occurred to them that it was no more expensive to feed two than one, since the "everybody", and "nobody" bore the cost...
The greed continued...some of the others went out and bought TWO new cows... you get the picture...
It wasn't long before the "commons" was grazed to dust...the farmers had no means to support their large herds, went bankrupt, killed the cows, etc., and they all ended up on the public dole.
Fast forward to ~2000 CE, and up to the present. Our information society has exploded into logarithmic growth...Software methods and Business methods are mostly re-combinations of ideas and methods (prior art) that have been utilized in the past, but are word-smithed into "new" ideas. The prior art, which nobody owns, but benefits us all, is the commons...
The Patent Trolls are nothing more than the greedy farmers who saw an opportunity to take selfish advantage of "everybody's" and "nobody's" common ground. We have reached the point where the commons are grazed to dust.
The solution? Not sure there, but the only party that CAN implement a solution is a higher power...just as it was in Medieval England. The higher power is government, whether it be local (village) or Federal (as is our case here). Ultimately, it is our (U.S.) government's responsibility to provide for its' citizen's health, welfare and quality of life, by preserving the "commons" for the benefit of all.
Prior art,and the protection of prior art (the commons) is government's responsibility. I think the penalties should be severe for anyone who selfishly plunders the common ground...
(1) Interoperable among diverse internal and external platforms and applications;
"Diverse internal and external..." I think diversity would include Linux distros...MS products don't run natively on Linux-based OS's - Partial failure
(2) Fully published and available royalty-free;
I assume "Fully..." means no secret binaries, or API's..."available royalty-free" define what is a royalty... as in MS can't "choose" to whom to license it...and can it be passed on? - Partial Failure
(3) Implemented by multiple vendors;
I assume "implemented" means "used as a native data format to the application, not something that requires a "filter" to open or save it... Failure
(4) Controlled by an open industry organization with a well-defined inclusive process for evolution of the standard.
Ballmer and his Wolfram & Hart Legal Team know full well that they have a pig trough full of patents pending/approved that will allow them to sue numerous Distro Vendors for infringement...
Even though the Patents could/can be overturned, it will take years to go through that process... just about enough time to win the case, based on the "patents" in place, collect damages, or shut them all down. Appeals included at no additional cost.
And Stevie B.will laugh and smile to the public, safe in his total ownership of all things software... and we thought he could dance before!
Evolution/mutation are instantaneous...Goulds theory of Punctuated Equilibrium explains why it looks like it takes millenia to occur.
Mutations that survive move off to other environments. They thrive and multiply, then overrun the original areas. This is why fossil records thousands, perhaps millions, of years apart show a drastic change in a single species.
I don't think IBM is looking for settlements, they are a lioness on the hunt. IBM is looking for blood, following the money trail.
"Non quatro" is playing. If I were MS, I would be concerned about IBM's blood lust revealing some anti-trust evidence and turning it into Kolar-Kotelly. The terms of the settlement with DoJ are NOT friendly to officers if they are caught with their hands in to cookie jar.
This is going to be fun...I'm sure there is some piggy type squealing going on in Redmond right now.
They've done all the studies and research. Yes, people buy a DVD and they watch it right away. They all have photographic memories, so that there is no reason to replay the movie...hmmm, could there be some kind of DMCA violation there? Make photographic memories illegal, since it is a circumvention of the encryption.
And all DVD watching families have perfectly timed schedules, where the whole family can watch it at the same time...even the kids, since they can start the movie at 6:30 pm and every body gets to bed on time.
And all have phones that "know" this and block all calls, and all power outages are put on hold.
Yep, MS has set the market. We just need to adjust our lives to fit the MS market mold. Steve Martin wrote a book once about just such an approach..."Cruel Shoes", I believe it was entitled...
Me, who sometimes falls asleep watching one..."You mean I have to buy ANOTHER disc?????"
Ah, and the wonderful coordinating of family viewing times, especially if both you and your spouse want to see it, but can't quite get your schedules worked out. Oh, and one or both falling asleep right about 2/3 through it.
Oh, yeah this technology will just fly off the shelves. I can't wait...
Ya'll need to get this straight and keep it straight.
"Cures" are altruistic concepts that gain people's sympathy, so that they (the sheeple) are more willing to donate money to fund this crap.
The key to it, if you think like a drug company, is to pour billions into "Treatments". Follow me here...
Treatments mean that you can hold back the detrimental effects of the disease, while keeping those affected people coming back for more "Treatments" -- at a price.
"Cures", unfortunately, mean that affected people will (eventually) *NOT* have to return for more -- THEY ARE CURED.
Cures do nothing for the bottom line of a drug/research company/project. Treatments do.
There is absolutely NO ECONOMIC INCENTIVE for anybody to develop CURES. Got that?
Now, do you understand why "Cures" are always years distant? And treatments are available or just around the corner?
And if you look at the dates, Alacritech didn't get the patent till 2000, and another one in 2002.
I think you *need* the approved patent to sue for infringement. "Patent pending" won't cut it in court.
Besides, they may have notified MS in 2000, when they got the patent, but MS has the money to "wait it out", gambling (somewhat...eh, maybe not that much, based on their record)that the little guy will get starved out.
Burst was in the same position. I think the major reason Burst settled was because of cash flow.
Eventually, Kolar-Kotelly will have to take these types of behavior under legal consideration as evidence that MS will just not change. Maybe then we can get a ruling that's fair to the marketplace...
Wrong! The competition is NOT incompetent. The competition is composed of developers who produce a product and THEN have to go to distribution channels and "sell" their product to distributors...OEM's maybe.
But if every distributors is roped/welded to MS, they are NOT going to be able to reach a wider audience very easily, even if the developer's product is better than MS' version.
It's all about distribution, overcoming the "network effect" and us comsumers (who max our benefits, while minimizing cost to ourselves as individuals).
MS uses micro-economics to leverage their products in a macro-economic world. If they offer products bundled with the OS, then almost by default, individuals will use them (benefit), since the user doen't have to expend any energy to find an alternative (cost).
It's not incompetence, it's distribution channels...
As I have read in several other articles, this isn't so much a hit against MS as it is the business model they use...bundling stuff right into the OS install.
While we are essentially creatures who seek the lowest cost/benefits of any transaction, this decision changes some of the dynamics of software choice.
I hope some OEM's follow through and install different Media players...even though RN may be just as intrusive and unpleasant.
If you give a caveman a chainsaw, you'll hear similar complaints...
"Where's the wood handle?" "There's no leather thong to hold the rock in place" There's no ROCK!!" "Whats this handle with the string running through it?" "The flat thing sticking out is TOO uncomfortable...and I can't make a cut with the big yellow blocky thing at the end" "And these points on the thin handle...way too sharp and hard on my hands"
Slashdot Mirror
...sometimes it helps to know the issues on which you are commenting.
Granted, some of the points may have been distateful, but a majority of them had to do with watering down American history...to the point that history before 1900 was close to being irrelevant.
* Dropping out the "discovery" of America by Chris Columbus (I know, it's really the "West Indies" on which he landed)
* Removing references to "Christmas" as the celebration of Jesus' birth, BUT adding the Hindu holiday of "Diwali"
* Citizens of the US no longer...texts would talk of "global citizenry"
* Free Enterprise" = BAD ; "Capitalism" = BAD ; BAD = "Imperialism"
"Social Justice" = GOOD ; "Political Correctness" = GOOD
Yeah, many of us may not like all of the changes that were passed, but some of US history may have been salvaged.
Whatever you may think of the process or the results, our history, and that history of the founders of the US, is just as important as knowing how many provinces and territories make up Canada, or the complete lineage of Queen Elizabeth II, back to Harold himself. Every country has it's history, and that's important, but not any more important than retaining the history of the U.S.A.
The parent lobs a grenade for one side of the issue; but doesn't pick up the rest of the story. 704 responses so far...a few actually make good points.
From what I understand, the "publishers" run these textbooks by these state Public Education committees to get feedback and "diurection" as to what should be included in the texts our kids will be reading and studying. At this point, I think it's Texas and California to whom these publishers sell the majority of their wares...and most states have abdicated to those two princiuples. To make matters worse (if it is California), budget problems are impacting sales there...leaving Texas as the long pole in the tent.
This is NOT a one-sided issue...and it's been creeping along like this for years...As one of the responses brought out, the CotUS is NOT a living document, rather it is stakes driven into our soil as guidance...its' clear intent was to define what role our Federal Government was to play. But, what has happened over the last 50 years or so, is our own diversity and political correctness have shot holes in our feet. The texts editors have been slowly "removing" what I thought (way back when) were important events and references - - Like Christopher Columbus - "it is not relevant now"...
We also have to remember that these publishers utilize writers and scholars, as well as Consultants (o-o-o-o-h, bad word) to determine what should be included in the texts...to the extent that references to major events get re-defined, based on their views of "what's important". Like Christmas Day as a Holiday (Holy Day is the root words of that one), being replaced by a "nonsense" day...to avoid making a religious reference. And some other instances of dropping words from the text of the Declaration of Independence...as in "We hold these truths to be self-evident...that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights...". And creator is NOT specific. Thomas Jefferson wrote that, a man who treasured religion, but didn't want a document favoring one over another for this new country that favored one religion over another. And the Constitutional Convention started from the Declaration of Independence when they began work on the CotUS.
And also recall that the very founding settlers of this country left everything behind them in England, to escape religious persecution...
So there is also all-out war within the Texas faction; and it is many-faceted...from an insistence of RE-ESTABLISHING our fundamental "stakes" in the ground, to over-embellishing the significance of Religion in our growth and evolution as a country, to encompassing our diversity and melting pot as a nation of INDIVIDUALS from many different cultures, societies and beliefs. Individuals being the key word...Everything in the BoR is about us as a society of INDIVIDUALS, not groups. And we are one of the few, if not the only, nation, who value the individual over the society.
As George Washington said,"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."
I would trust in those words, unbleached by Political Correctness, as opposed to any I have heard recently...
FPO
Common sense comes in through "Common Man" theory, I believe. The issue you state is a fundamental difference in what we would like the law to do, and what it does. On the SCOTUS is emblazoned the phrase "EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER THE LAW". Equal has nothing to with what's FAIR. When one cuts a piece of pie exactly in half, that does does not take into account that one person getting a "cut" may be more hungry than the other person? Considering "hunger" in the splitting process falls into the realm of deciding "FAIR", not "EQUAL", outcomes. The pie analogy can be used to show the difference between "fair" and "equal" - Two selfish, pre-teen siblings argue over who will get the bigger piece. The father intervenes and says to the brother "you cut the pie" and, turning to the sister, says, "you choose first". My, that puts FAIR and EQUAL in perspective, doesn't it? Laws are meant to provide EQUAL protection, but not FAIR protection. FAIR is a MORAL issue...and it is up to each of us to decide what's fair, not the courts. But, base that decision of fairness from the "other side" of the issue, not your side.
So the real problem is $3.8 trillion of government spending. It attracts corruption, fraud, waste, opportunists, and everything else bad that people keep complaining about.
Okay, so that explains why 537 people behave the way they do. Now, what about the rest of us?
FPO
Most of what you say makes sense...
But this?
But the reality of the matter is ... these idiots will keep spending until the below average half of the population is only 10% of people.
So let's see...changing the "average" point of the population will result in a smaller number of members below that point. That probably works, if you "keep" the average point through all subsequent measurements...
But the "average" changes with the segment of population being measured. No matter how you try to bend, fold, or twist the statistics, average is always the "mean": the sum of observation values divided by the number of observations.
I'm sure you meant to say "median"...right? Very different statistic...and very different implications.
FPO
So....what kind of technology would be included in "Pyroclastic Cloud Computing?
Tragedy of the Commons is the system archetype, whose name is derived from the over-use and abuse of "common ground" in medieval England. The small villages there typically had a "commons", a grassy place for allowing each nearby farmer to bring in their "cow" to eat the grass...probably had something to do with the number of cows (1 per farmer), available grass, etc., and the "commons" area could meet all their needs, without grazing the land to dust. The commons benefited everybody (kinda sorta like "public domain"), without cost to any one individual. And, all common ground users cared for the common land. Because, it belonged to all, and...nobody.
Until, of course, one farmer got greedy and saw an opportunity to purchase another cow and take advantage of the "free range" grass...he now had TWO cows and could efficiently outproduce the others...giving him a bigger "market share".
Some of the others saw this and they, too, jumped on the bandwagon, each buying another cow...because it finally occurred to them that it was no more expensive to feed two than one, since the "everybody", and "nobody" bore the cost...
The greed continued...some of the others went out and bought TWO new cows... you get the picture...
It wasn't long before the "commons" was grazed to dust...the farmers had no means to support their large herds, went bankrupt, killed the cows, etc., and they all ended up on the public dole.
Fast forward to ~2000 CE, and up to the present. Our information society has exploded into logarithmic growth...Software methods and Business methods are mostly re-combinations of ideas and methods (prior art) that have been utilized in the past, but are word-smithed into "new" ideas. The prior art, which nobody owns, but benefits us all, is the commons...
The Patent Trolls are nothing more than the greedy farmers who saw an opportunity to take selfish advantage of "everybody's" and "nobody's" common ground. We have reached the point where the commons are grazed to dust.
The solution? Not sure there, but the only party that CAN implement a solution is a higher power...just as it was in Medieval England. The higher power is government, whether it be local (village) or Federal (as is our case here). Ultimately, it is our (U.S.) government's responsibility to provide for its' citizen's health, welfare and quality of life, by preserving the "commons" for the benefit of all.
Prior art,and the protection of prior art (the commons) is government's responsibility. I think the penalties should be severe for anyone who selfishly plunders the common ground...
F.P. Oglethorpe
(1) Interoperable among diverse internal and external platforms and applications;
"Diverse internal and external..." I think diversity would include Linux distros...MS products don't run natively on Linux-based OS's - Partial failure
(2) Fully published and available royalty-free;
I assume "Fully..." means no secret binaries, or API's..."available royalty-free" define what is a royalty... as in MS can't "choose" to whom to license it...and can it be passed on? - Partial Failure
(3) Implemented by multiple vendors;
I assume "implemented" means "used as a native data format to the application, not something that requires a "filter" to open or save it... Failure
(4) Controlled by an open industry organization with a well-defined inclusive process for evolution of the standard.
'nuff said...Complete Failure.
Remember RIM case...
Ballmer and his Wolfram & Hart Legal Team know full well that they have a pig trough full of patents pending/approved that will allow them to sue numerous Distro Vendors for infringement...
Even though the Patents could/can be overturned, it will take years to go through that process... just about enough time to win the case, based on the "patents" in place, collect damages, or shut them all down. Appeals included at no additional cost.
And Stevie B.will laugh and smile to the public, safe in his total ownership of all things software... and we thought he could dance before!
It's not just legacy support, it's legacy support of the FUD kludges they've built in over the years.
Warnings about certain apps "not working", when in fact they do. MS doesn't WANT them to.
That's what takes up the space...probably have all kinds of logical trees of responses that need to be updated in order to maintain the FUD.
Yeah, I got a tinfoil hat...
Read Stephen Jay Goulds.
Evolution/mutation are instantaneous...Goulds theory of Punctuated Equilibrium explains why it looks like it takes millenia to occur.
Mutations that survive move off to other environments. They thrive and multiply, then overrun the original areas. This is why fossil records thousands, perhaps millions, of years apart show a drastic change in a single species.
FPO
I don't think IBM is looking for settlements, they are a lioness on the hunt. IBM is looking for blood, following the money trail.
"Non quatro" is playing. If I were MS, I would be concerned about IBM's blood lust revealing some anti-trust evidence and turning it into Kolar-Kotelly. The terms of the settlement with DoJ are NOT friendly to officers if they are caught with their hands in to cookie jar.
This is going to be fun...I'm sure there is some piggy type squealing going on in Redmond right now.
FPO
Hanging chads can be "interpreted".
Isaac Asimov created the Zeroth Law of Robotics...I guess one can blame him for starting with zero...
U-mmmmm...
Ah! Got it! But if they pay MS for the software, thereby getting a license, then they WILL have the expertise.
How simple! This is the answer to that third step in the process that always has the ellipsis.
FPO
Aren't there laws in place about toxic waste spills?
Nope, none of these things happen in MS land.
They've done all the studies and research. Yes, people buy a DVD and they watch it right away. They all have photographic memories, so that there is no reason to replay the movie...hmmm, could there be some kind of DMCA violation there? Make photographic memories illegal, since it is a circumvention of the encryption.
And all DVD watching families have perfectly timed schedules, where the whole family can watch it at the same time...even the kids, since they can start the movie at 6:30 pm and every body gets to bed on time.
And all have phones that "know" this and block all calls, and all power outages are put on hold.
Yep, MS has set the market. We just need to adjust our lives to fit the MS market mold. Steve Martin wrote a book once about just such an approach..."Cruel Shoes", I believe it was entitled...
Oh, yeah, I'm really looking forward to that.
Me, who sometimes falls asleep watching one..."You mean I have to buy ANOTHER disc?????"
Ah, and the wonderful coordinating of family viewing times, especially if both you and your spouse want to see it, but can't quite get your schedules worked out. Oh, and one or both falling asleep right about 2/3 through it.
Oh, yeah this technology will just fly off the shelves. I can't wait...
Ya'll need to get this straight and keep it straight.
"Cures" are altruistic concepts that gain people's sympathy, so that they (the sheeple) are more willing to donate money to fund this crap.
The key to it, if you think like a drug company, is to pour billions into "Treatments". Follow me here...
Treatments mean that you can hold back the detrimental effects of the disease, while keeping those affected people coming back for more "Treatments" -- at a price.
"Cures", unfortunately, mean that affected people will (eventually) *NOT* have to return for more -- THEY ARE CURED.
Cures do nothing for the bottom line of a drug/research company/project. Treatments do.
There is absolutely NO ECONOMIC INCENTIVE for anybody to develop CURES. Got that?
Now, do you understand why "Cures" are always years distant? And treatments are available or just around the corner?
FPO
I think Asa had a blog entry on this...
The download counter only counts "foreign" browsers (like IE, or Opera), or Versions before 1.0.
If you download a new installer with a current (1.0 or >) version, it won't count.
There goes most of the theories about counts surmised above...
We're probably seeing a realistic download count for unique users for non-current versions...
FPO
And if you look at the dates, Alacritech didn't get the patent till 2000, and another one in 2002.
I think you *need* the approved patent to sue for infringement. "Patent pending" won't cut it in court.
Besides, they may have notified MS in 2000, when they got the patent, but MS has the money to "wait it out", gambling (somewhat...eh, maybe not that much, based on their record)that the little guy will get starved out.
Burst was in the same position. I think the major reason Burst settled was because of cash flow.
Eventually, Kolar-Kotelly will have to take these types of behavior under legal consideration as evidence that MS will just not change. Maybe then we can get a ruling that's fair to the marketplace...
FPO
You're kidding...right?
Wrong! The competition is NOT incompetent. The competition is composed of developers who produce a product and THEN have to go to distribution channels and "sell" their product to distributors...OEM's maybe.
But if every distributors is roped/welded to MS, they are NOT going to be able to reach a wider audience very easily, even if the developer's product is better than MS' version.
It's all about distribution, overcoming the "network effect" and us comsumers (who max our benefits, while minimizing cost to ourselves as individuals).
MS uses micro-economics to leverage their products in a macro-economic world. If they offer products bundled with the OS, then almost by default, individuals will use them (benefit), since the user doen't have to expend any energy to find an alternative (cost).
It's not incompetence, it's distribution channels...
FPO
Certainly clarifies the air doesn't it?
As I have read in several other articles, this isn't so much a hit against MS as it is the business model they use...bundling stuff right into the OS install.
While we are essentially creatures who seek the lowest cost/benefits of any transaction, this decision changes some of the dynamics of software choice.
I hope some OEM's follow through and install different Media players...even though RN may be just as intrusive and unpleasant.
If you give a caveman a chainsaw, you'll hear similar complaints...
"Where's the wood handle?"
"There's no leather thong to hold the rock in place"
There's no ROCK!!"
"Whats this handle with the string running through it?"
"The flat thing sticking out is TOO uncomfortable...and I can't make a cut with the big yellow blocky thing at the end"
"And these points on the thin handle...way too sharp and hard on my hands"