Re: looks like it's happening everywhere

> From: "Jan C. Depner" <[email protected]>

> 	I hate to break this to you but "software 
> manufacturing" is not a
> special case.  At the present it is the majority of cases.  
> Open source
> that can compete on merit is what we need not open source because "we
> say so".  That way leads to the same trap as proprietary lock-in.  If
> it's the best it will win, if it's not it will lose.  Let's leave it
> that way.  I kind of like Darwinian software selection.  If 
> open source
> only makes it to the "horse and buggy" should we not buy an 
> "automobile"
> because it wasn't open source.  If you mandate open standards (in the
> public interest) then open source will win in most cases.  Where it
> doesn't win it doesn't deserve to.

Exactly!  What we are seeing is that there is one fairly powerful vendor who has created a bunch of "defacto standards" and "embraced and extended" protocols, who manages to get more sales by means of that lock in.  We see the US going to WSIS and WPO and encouraging those defacto standards to be acceptable for those countries that cannon afford to tithe to Redmond.


> 
> 	So, what you're saying is that our economy would have 
> been better off
> if we hadn't started making cars as good as the Japanese did in the
> 1970s? 

Actually that is the point!  Think back to before the 70's GM made some interesting cars.  Fenders were bolted on almost straight.  (Yes I have a 60's Chevy - built at Norwood Ohio)  Engines were redone every ten years.  Datsun/Toyota/Mazda came into the market, and all of a sudden folks could buy a car where they did not have to spend a bunch of bucks on "Options" to get a comfortable car, where there was leg room without having to have a twenty foot long parking spot.  Where independent suspension/Disk brakes/Overhead Cam were not just reserved for sports cars..  GM had to smarten up.  They had a disaster with the VEGA before they managed to build the Cavalier.  (drive one of those to work every day - built at Lordstown Ohio which I believe is the same plant that built the Vega)

Having to compete on  the automotive industry open standards helps GM to make a better product, one that is competitive world wide.  GM even has a deal now to use the LADA plant in the former Soviet Union to build a 4X4 that is evolved from the LADA NIVA, but with the Knowledge that GM has applied.  That unit is sold in Russia as a Chevrolet!

The difference could almost be a paradigm shift.  What would happen if Microsoft was similarly forced to concentrate on Interoperable open standards? 

> From: Taran Rampersad <[email protected]>

> Sure, pay twice for the same thing. That certainly helps the 
> economy. At 
> least at a glance.

AH yes, the GDP measure as a figure of merit.  (Lets hope for a disaster, the money spent on rebuilding will raise the GDP and make the economy look strong)