I think Tom's point was that technology leaves the old stuff behind, eventually. For example, not many computers from the 1980's would be of much use today, if one wanted to use that computer to connect to the internet. Many web sites will also become unreadable by the oldest browsers, too. Not a question of fairness, but one of standards and capabilities.
Thank you, Mark Snyder -----Original Message----- Far be it from me to disagree with our Fearless Leader, but the Internet doesn't just belong to us and to other nerds, wonks, and graphics specialists. It also belongs to the grandmother in Des Moines who's keeping up with her grandchildren's school via their website and who maintains the church's Food Bank webpage, because there's nobody else to do it. It belongs to the young couple in rural Virginia who are just getting their bed-and-breakfast off the ground and who have put together their new website from a template, with the help of their brother-in-law in Nevada. Or the ten-year-old kid in an inner city school who has just gotten access to a computer--a used laptop--for the FIRST time, and is trying to find his way around, to get material from the Net for a class assignment. He has to figure out how to use the Internet really fast, because in half an hour, he has to pass the laptop on to the next kid. Such people don't have huge amounts of time--and probably don't have the knowledge--to mess around with tekkie things like downloading a new browser and spending hours delicately adjusting it so that it actually works. They're using the Internet for basic and often essential functions, and they need their browser to work NOW. The harried parent who's looking on the school board website, trying to find out if school is cancelled today because of snow, JUST CAN'T stop and download a new browser, customize it, work out the bugs, etc. before she/he decides whether or not to bundle Junior or Sis off to the schoolbus stop in fifteen minutes. So they'll continue to use earlier browsers, even if IE 7 is better or more standards-compliant than previous releases (which, judging from complaints I've heard from web design people, shouldn't be hard). ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************
