From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Wed Jan 24 2001 - 21:52:16 MST
>Russell Whitaker wrote:
>>
>> Will say: _luv_ Flight Simulator. Many CFIs (instructors)
>> maintain that the FAA should certify it as acceptable for
> > logging simulator flight time.
(I posted a list of dirty tricks by Microsoft. People now perceive
me as anti-Microsoft. This post should balance things out.)
My favorite MS program is Internet Explorer 5.5. Although MS totally
broke the syntax rules of HTML in previous versions, they have since
seen the light. Their latest version fixed much of their buggy
non-compliant software, and added a lot of support for Cascading
Style Sheets. They released IE for the Mac later than the PC, and
this latest version is currently rated as the most CSS-compliant
browser ever.
Meanwhile, Netscape has released a larger, bloated version which
actually degrades its function. Since being bought out by AOL, they
have been more focused on merging AOL functionality into the browser
rather than implementing actual Internet standards. Microsoft IE is
now a superior product over Netscape due to superior quality.
My earlier post mentioned MS' dirty tricks of serving jagged fonts to
Netscape, having MS servers delay netscape pages, and deliberately
serving error messages instead of content to Netscape. That was
given as a history lesson. None of Microsoft's current products are
known to play these tricks any more. Although many old-timers have a
long memory, the market is quick and dynamic. The market
re-evaluates things currently in view. Microsoft products are no
longer defacto, and are actually fighting on their merits. Macintosh
is making a comeback. Unix, especially AIX and Linux are becoming
bigger all the time. And Microsoft's defacto windows client base has
fragmented into window 95/98, windows NT, windows 2000, windows ME,
etc.
Although Microsoft may have gotten its start with a lot of
quasi-legal maneuvering and dirty tricks, these methods don't work
forever. If Microsoft is going to survive, it will do so based on
actual product quality. Windows was a kludge of smoke and mirrors
over DOS. Windows 95 was actually a major product development of a
shell over DOS. Windows NT was actually a carefully designed
operating system. Windows 2000 is an attempt to migrate their client
base from the kludge to the real OS. In the future, they will have
to produce even more quality products. Their quick-and-dirty tricks
seem to be a thing of the past.
-- Harvey Newstrom <HarveyNewstrom.com>
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