more on New USG Grant System Excludes Mac Users

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

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- -------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [IP] more on New USG Grant System Excludes Mac Users
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 12:04:34 -0500
From: Gene Spafford <spaf () cerias purdue edu>
To: dave () farber net
References: <43F0B795.40202 () farber net>

The real problem, of course, is that the system was apparently never
specified to be standards-compliant and vendor neutral.  If it was,
then the program management has deviated from the specs.

Scientists use Windows (certainly), but also Macs (OS 9 and OS X),
Solaris, Linux (all 20 million versions :-), HP/UX, AIX, and more.
The common thread is interoperable, vendor-neutral standards.

I have often stated in interviews that "Common does not mean
'standard.' "   That there are more Windows machines out there does
not mean that Windows is the standard.  If simple majority was the
criterion on which to base an implementation, then they should have
done the whole thing in Chinese as it is probably the most-used
language in the world.  Not to be as pejorative as this sounds, I
harken back to an article in the NY Times on 11/26/91 that had the
following lovely quote about Microsoft products vs the Mac:
"...cockroaches are far more numerous than humans, [but] ... numbers
alone do not denote a higher life form."  Numbers alone do not tell
the story that should be told!

If the site had been developed to primarily work with Macs or VMS or
DOS we should have been equally as outraged at the expenditure of
public funds effectively endorsing one system; emulation for "second
class" is not a solution.

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