[oclug] [OT] ease of use

[Rod Giffin]

On Wed, 2002-11-27 at 17:32, Christian Mautner wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 27, 2002 at 12:26:47AM -0500, Jon Earle wrote:
> [...]
> > MS did a good thing when they built the driver model (even though
> > programming it can be a task from the Devil himself).  It works something
> > like this:  Devices such as printers all operate in basically the same
> > way.  So, they write the driver to do the basics.  Manufacturers write the
> > minidrivers that support the particulars of the device.  Simple, clean and
> > easy to use. One main system that relies on small pieces of code/data to
> > accomplish the task.
> [...]
> 
> Funny thing is, Unix and many other non-MS systems had this all
> along. Postscript. All applications have to do, is to generate
> postscript output. And if the user is willing, he can plug in a
> Postscript printer, and everything is fine.
> 
> To support non-Postscript printers there is ghostscript, most
> important part of all Linux printing subsystem flavours.
> 
> So please don't praise Microsoft for the crummy implementation of a
> stolen concept. This happens way too often.

That's true, you know.  It's why PC's didn't get used for high end
graphics and Mac's and Sparc stations did in the '80's. It actually
wasn't until the early '90's that Microsoft jumped on the band wagon.  I
can remember when Adobe (who's technology it really is) didn't even
support Microsoft.  It wasn't all that long ago.

It's not the only technology that Microsoft did this to either (lead
people to believe they innovated something that they co-opted instead). 
Does anyone remember where IIS and PWS come from?  How about SQL
Server,  Microsoft Access, and even IE.  The list of Microsoft
"innovations" that are actually co-opted technologies is very very long.

Rod.