[OFB Cafe] Cafe List

[Chris Olson]

From: Fred A. Miller 
Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2008 10:57 AM
To: An Open Discussion Forum on Just About Everything,Especially for Techies. 
Subject: Re: [OFB Cafe] Cafe List

> MickySoft is guilty of a lot of things.........

You keep saying this sort of thing (perhaps for my benefit), but so far all I've seen is the innuendo and accusations.  I've yet to see you provide me with what was called earlier, "valid reasons".  You know, concrete examples, data, evidence?  Then establish that these "valid reasons" (which I would assume would boil down to business practices) are actually more predatory, or different somehow, than any other large companies/monopolies such as Walmart, Exxon-Mobile, Google, or even Apple, Inc uses.

What I suspect is that you only focus on Microsoft because you're a linux user, and that type of elitist attitude among linux users is one of the largest reasons why I quit using it long ago.  The fact is, Microsoft has pretty much built the personal computing industry as we know it today, and this industry is a huge multi-trillion dollar per year industry that provides jobs in various factions from factories building computers to people in support and software development.

Back in the day, the other possibility would've been that Apple Computer would've become the dominant operating environment.  And my personal opinion, given Apple's penchant for iron-fist control, is that we'd be much worse off today had that happened.

What you need to realize is that coming off as a linux fanatic, complete with all the cultist jargon that attempts to make your pet OS look good by making the competition look bad, will never get you anywhere.  It only gets you labeled as "one of these geeks that lives in his mother's basement".  When the linux community finally grows up enough to realize that using these childish descriptions of the competition is self-defeating in the computing world at large, then maybe linux (and its userbase) will finally be ready for the Big Time.

> I also am not convinced that email lists are less popular.

I used to admin and host, on my own servers, the GWTA (Goldwing Touring Assn) mailing list.  65,000+ subscribers.  It is now defunct as the management of the organization decided to go to a web based forum.  I used to admin and host, on my own servers, the Honda ST1100 Pan European mailing list - approximately 38,000 subscribers worldwide.  That list has now gone to a web based forum instead.  I could go on with several examples of very large organizations that have dumped traditional mailing lists in favor of web-based forums.

In the long run, I think interactive social sites like Facebook or Windows Live Spaces will displace even web-based forums.  All you have to do is look at the younger generation in and leaving college; the vast majority of them use some sort of web-based email like Windows Live Hotmail, Yahoo!, GMail, or what have you - the traditional email client is rapidly becoming a thing of the past too.  These young people, by and large, have no interest in either mailing lists or web-based forums as a form of internet communication.  They mostly interact with their friends using IM software (many with video/webcams), by cell phone, and on social websites like Facebook, MySpace or Windows Live.

Like I've always told my clientele, the only thing that burying your head in the sand accomplishes when the winds of change blow is that you get your ass sandblasted.
--
Chris