[CLUE-Tech] Business Misunderstand Computers (WAS: My Transition)

[Chris K. Chew]

This thread has gotten me thinking again that it is unfortunate that
Businesses seem to forget all common sense whenever it comes to computers.
They are as deer in Microsoft's headlights.  Let's say a business were
selling wheels, and a company came to them and said:

"We sell axles that don't fit any existing standardized hub systems and
never will.  Because of this, hubs must also be bought from us because
nobody else sells hubs that fit our axles.  In fact, it is illegal for
anybody else to design hubs that fit our axles.  You should expect a new
axle version once every 1-2 years, and version upgrades will either be
necessary or we will force you to upgrade by threatening to drop any
licensing that you have with us.  With each version, you should expect to
have to purchase new axles and hubs, and redesign your wheels to fit the new
hub design.  Unfortunately, employees will generally have to relearn their
processes with each new version because upgrades offer different (sometimes
better) ways of doing things.  Disregard any third party testing that
reports our axles break every three months, but we are quite sure that our
axles are the strongest in world.  Oh, we also periodically release minor
fixes to our current axle/hub version, so you will have to patch every axle
and hub that you have built using that version.  Often times our patches
themselves need patches, so you can expect to have to do this at least twice
a month.  About half the time, it should be considered an emergency to apply
the patches before anybody gets hurt.  We do not take responsibility for
unsafe or otherwise vulnerable axles.  No we do not support and problems
with previous axle/hub versions, so we recommend that be diligent in
upgrading all axles and hubs."

If a company bought these axles and hubs, I certainly wouldn't expect them
to be in business for very long.

Microsoft:  "Yes, we know that our company is operating illegally and
disrespectfully, but we are also operating on the assumption that people are
stupid and therefore cannot comprehend our industry well enough to indict us
or even boycott our products enough to put us out of business."

So why do companies use Microsoft software, when Microsoft uses this very
tactic to generate income?  It is absolutely astounding that things have
gone this far in the computer industry.  Bill Gates recently sent his annual
memo telling of "Trustworthy Computing".  If he actually gets away with
maintaining the public's trust over the next few years, then I will have
completely lost my remaining faith in humanity's ability to comprehend.
Nevertheless, I still will not run my company like Bill Gates runs his.

Thanks for listening,

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: clue-tech-admin at clue.denver.co.us
[mailto:clue-tech-admin at clue.denver.co.us]On Behalf Of Grant Johnson
Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2002 12:47 PM
To: clue-tech at clue.denver.co.us
Subject: Re: [CLUE-Tech] My transition


Since there are only 2 of you, it may be easier just to move everything
to open published standards.  This will prevent the current vendor
lock-in and potential vendor extortion problems that you have.

No, vendor extortion is not too harsh.  If you have a solution that your
business depends on, and it is available only from one vendor, that
vendor can charge whatever they want.  This is always a danger with
unpublished API's and unpublished file formats.

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