Stevens <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:
We probably should not want any one operating system, be it proprietary,
> open-source or a hybrid, to displace all others. Monopolies and
> monocultures have bad consequences by their inherent nature.
Very true. Just as tool boxes are full of both metric and SAE sockets
here, as well as phillips and slotted head screwdrivers.
I think you have this analogy slightly wrong. Metric and SAE are
standards, as are slotted/crosshead/Phillips, the former at least
defined by international standards bodies and agreed between manufacturers.
The equivalent would be all screwdrivers being designed and made by
Philips and marketed in such a way that people are led to say "You can't
undo that screw? Of course not, that's not a real Phillips screwdriver."
Or all sizes of plywood being given public random numbers by a
manufacturer with a set of additional secret numbers per type describing
slight variations such that you have to tell the manufacturer what
you're doing or they have to anticipate it otherwise the parts won't
quite fit properly.
I've probably overcomplicated it: the difference between agreed
standards and de facto standards is what I'm getting at.
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