facts, conclusions, and exhortations re XML (long)

[Clark C. Evans]

On Sun, 21 Nov 1999, Jelks Cabaniss wrote:
> Government -- the real monopoly -- *forces* you to pay taxes. 

It is "taxation without representation" that led the 
founders of the United States to fight for independence. 
Microsoft makes no efforts to be representative, so
comparing Microsoft to a democratic government is
logically flawed. 

> You have *no other choice*.  

Wrong.  You can leave the country  --  about as much choice 
as you have in a corporate environment with regard to which
operating system you will use.   Ballance is required -- both 
capitalism and democracy are bad in their extreme.

Therefore, we are here on this list to give firm support, 
resonable critique, and committment to a governmental-like 
organization, the W3C, which exists to define the rules by 
which our software programs (read business processes) will 
cooperate in a competitive business environment.  Any threat 
to undermine these rules must be taken seriously, and this
I believe is the meat of Steve's argument.

> [Microsoft is a constantly changing company -- if you want 
> to "reform" it,  give it competition and "vote" with your dollars.  
> Microsoft listens to competition; too bad the previous 
> competition was Netscape.

You obviously have not read Judge Jackson's findings of fact.

Standards, in this case the W3C's XML standards are what 
will enable this reform by putting competitors on equal footing.
Right now, if your implementation disagrees with Microsoft's
implementation -- you are wrong.  Independent standards hope 
to change this... if they do not, then other, more drastic 
measures, like Open Source software are our only hope for a 
fair environment for vigorous competition.

That being said, I hope that Microsoft does not have a policy 
to subvert XML.  However, given the Judge's findings, I am not 
going to dismiss the possibility of a less-than-honorable Microsoft.

Best Wishes,

Clark


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