on Tue, Dec 25, 2001 at 11:53:42AM +0000, Phillip Deackes (gsmh@gmx.co.uk) wrote: > On 24 Dec 2001 17:44:44 -0500 > > > Erik Steffl <steffl@bigfoot.com> writes: > > > No, but when a business chooses degenerate mail and forces everyone to > > use it, I'd be pretty suspicious of high-level idiocy within the > > business. > > It is about *choice* not just your choice but that of others working in > the company too. Imagine if each employee had a different opinion - there > are a plethora of different OSs and MUAs out there - and if each employee > was this dogmatic. Well...listen to yourself. We're all shooting mail back and forth to each other, clients I've seen include mutt, Evolution, MS Outlook, Mozilla, Eudoroa Pro, mh, and others. The client matters far less than the interchange format and transmission standards. Similarly, if you're dealing with text, HTML, or SGML, your editor doesn't matter to the reader. With a solid, implemented, calendaring standard, it really wouldn't matter what clients users used. Microsoft strives to take away this choice. The classic text on the topic is Varian & Shapiro, _Information Rules_ (http://www.inforules.com/). The concept is called lock-in. The issues aren't dissimilar to those I've discussed regarding TexInfo. > I am ICT Coordinator in a school, so I am in a position where I could > move from Windows NT4/Windows 98 to a Linux solution, but I must > consider the opinions, however misguided, of other users in the > school. Democracy is like that. The majority opinion is in a great > many cases not the best opinion. The problem is the all-or-nothing nature of the change. By moving MS Exchange out from under your communications system, you'd liberate yourself of MSFT lock-in. Users familiar with MS Outlook could continue using it, or replace it with any of a wide range of legacy MS Windows or GNU/Linux / Unix clients. Peace. -- Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/ What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand? Home of the brave http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/ Land of the free We freed Dmitry! Boycott Adobe! Repeal the DMCA! http://www.freesklyarov.org Geek for Hire http://kmself.home.netcom.com/resume.html
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