Linonut wrote:
> Roy Schestowitz belched:
>
>>> Similar to Sony Betamax versus VHS, I see ODF winning this one.
>>
>> I've been looking for an analogy. It's like presenting a hypertext
>> language that only works in IE (oh, wait, Microsoft sort of works on that
>> already, in its battle against Adobe/Macromedia Flash). Then, Microsoft
>> gets people to upload their 'pages' onto the Web and released a
>> 7,000-page document which explains how it works. Firefox, Safari, and
>> even lynx must then have to learn how to implement and test that new
>> Microsoft rendering engine (backward engineer from the specs) in order to
>> enable their users to view surf on the Web.
>
> Exactly. As stated in Jim McCarthy's Microsoft Press book "The Dynamics
> of Software Development", Microsoft wants to be in the driver's seat,
> forcing everyone to keep up with their software, and not vice versa.
>
> The de facto monopoly allows them to do that, as long as governments
> tolerate it.
>
> It is a serious mistake to confuse feature sets with open formats.
Actually what I see stabilising and encouraged sites to use standard, not
Microsoft HTML extensions is FireFox (and other browsers like Opera).
Firefox has a sufficient usership on the 'net, that by using standard HTML,
a site will not miss out on readership or internet orders.
It is a win-win situation for all to use standardised HTML, because no
matter what browser one uses, whether Mozilla, Opera, IE and derivatives
using IE engine, etc., they can still access and use the pages.
--
HPT
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