[OT] Free software versus software idea patents

[Martin Gregorie]

On Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:50:24 -0700, Westley Martínez wrote:

> Also, why aren't Opera and Google criticized for their proprietary
> browsers (Chrome is essentially a proprietary front-end)? Is it because
> their browsers follow web standards, or is it because we have demonized
> Microsoft?
>
Personally, I could care less whether a web browser is proprietary or 
not. What matters to me is whether its standards-compliant enough to 
interoperate successfully with standards-compliant browsers. If you're 
going to argue about web standards its better to criticise non-compliant 
servers since those will piss off a greater number of people.

I think the only real evil is to set out to make a non-standards-
compliant server and then design client software that seeks to lock in 
people to your server. FWIW I'm not certain that is anything that MS 
deliberately set out to do. Judging from stories over the years of lost 
code (the Win98 New Year problem) and the general slackness of their 
project management, its equally possible its simply the result of out of 
control, anarchic and undocumented software development. 


-- 
martin@   | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org       |