Re: Re: Why MS Won't Retire Browsers -- was: Interntet Explorer 8 beater 2

At 9:53 PM +0100 9/15/08, Stut wrote:

As for Microsoft (will people please stop screwing with their name, it's impolite), they've certainly made some bad choices over the years and Windows has suffered for it.

I screw with the M$ name because I don't like them! It's not due to their questionable business practices that ultimately ended Gates in front of Congress answering questions; or running Netscape out of business; or the hundreds of other instances of them being a dick, but rather what they did to *me*. You see, many years ago M$ developed and provided QuickBasic for the Mac. Myself and hundreds of other developers devoted our livelihoods to that product. Then one day, M$ sent out notice that they would no longer support QuickBasic and that was the end of that. All of our current, and past work, was on a dead-end street. We were left to fend for ourselves. Imagine if PHP suddenly stopped development and you had to find a different language (i.e., ruby). Sure we could all do it, but we picked this language for a reason and now we have to choose again -- and perhaps that choice was our second choice. I don't like being forced to settle for my second choice. Now, should have M$ continued to support a product that wasn't making sufficient money for them? I dunno, but I don't care either -- they screwed with my life and I'll spend the rest of it calling M$, M$. Similarly, I had a run-in with American Express over 30 years ago and even to this day I return all their sales promotion in their self-addressed no-postage envelope they provide. Over the years, I suspect they have paid postage for over 100 pounds of profitless correspondence and the time for their staff to examine it. Now, do I have problems? Perhaps, but I'm happy. :-) Cheers, tedd -- ------- http://sperling.com http://ancientstones.com http://earthstones.com