why flash MX 2004 doesn't work for the enterprise, yet (was Re: [Sigia-l] The future of WWW...)

[Listera]

Dave:

> Well obviously that isn't going to happen.

Do you think the MS monopoly is written in perpetuity?

> MS isn't going away.

Nobody that I'm aware of wants MS to go away. (Personally, I believe MS does
better than many of its competitors in many different areas.)  It's the
monopoly abuse that's the problem.

There's something odd about dismissing Flash because ActiveX is not secure
and then going with a solution from the same company that has given us
ActiveX and the rest of the security mess we're in today.

I understand and appreciate your frustration. But you also need to
understand that's precisely where MS wants you to be:

MS introduced IE for Mac to thwart Netscape on that platform. They gave it
away for free and got Apple to bundle it. After its mission was accomplished
and as soon as Safari came around, IE was killed as a standalone product. So
no more bug fixes or upgrades. But if you wanted upgrades to IE Mac you
could of course get it if you subscribed (for a fee) to MSN for Mac. Just
how cynical is that?

Same movie different movie theater: IE for Win languishes for half a decade
and is finally killed as a standalone product. If you want upgrades and
better compliance, why, pay up and upgrade to Longhorn, since that's the
only way you're going to get up-to-date browser functionality on Windows.

MS could have led the improvement of the web browser to same level of UI
functionality that any other Windows app has. They chose not to. They want
to sell you another OS, without which you won't get it.

You want to reward this behavior, by buying into the lock-in?

Three years ago, in a boardroom of one of the largest financial institutions
on the planet, I was laughed at when I suggested why an architecture based
purely on MS lock-in was shortsighted and with just a bit of foresight and
effort a far more scalable and interoperable solution could be had. Today
the same company is spending millions converting significant chunks of its
ops to Linux.

Times doesn't stand still and, in the words of another hometown convict,
choice "is a Good Thing."

Ziya
Nullius in Verba