/* XPM */ static char *microsoft[] = { /*
microsoft*/ "How I dislike Microsoft products -- oh, let me ", "count the ways. It's hard enough to make this ", "sort of project work in one browser, but when you ", "have a branded browser behaving like 5 entirely ", "different pieces of software, it becomes really ", "nerve racking. Rather than endeavoring to achieve", "some semblance of like-functioning among the ", "various browsers, Microsoft has plunged web ", "developers headlong into a sea of chaos that can, ", "presumably only be resolved by the use of more ", "'advanced' Microsoft authoring and server tools. ", "But alas, those tools, too, are designed to ", "break existing patterns of web authoring and to ", "force people to use only their products. The form", "I'm using to submit this icon works fine under ", "Netscape,--just as it would have worked in any ", "browser made to date. But MSIE for the Macintosh ", "has a fist full of goofy and counterintuitive ", "so-called features that make it confusing for ", "the user to use the interface. Add to that the ", "non-compliance with standards long-established by ", "by internet standards organizations, such as the ", "implementation of the anchor #frag addressing ", "mechanism, which is largely busted. Or the 'smart'", "word guessing that occurs whenever I begin a line ", "of text with two letters that have been typed ", "before. Standards are the only reasonable way to ", "withstand the dizzying array of new techniques and", "yet, at the same time, they are perceived by ", "Microsoft management as an evil. Compatibility ", "is weakness in the eyes of these moronic, self- ", "serving bean counters. Rather than concerning ", "themselves, even in some small way, with the ", "general quality of online experiences, they have ", "opted to put the destruction of their competition ", "at the top of their priorities. Moreover, in the ", "desperate scrambling that has resulted from this ", "strong-armed policy, the only viable comptetitor ", "has been forced to sell itself to a similarly ", "huge and profit driven corporation willing to ", "do battle on the same terms. Meanwhile the open ", "source movement lurks at the margins of popularity", "and looks to be the only remaining force capable ", "of encouraging standards. It's time for some folks", "to recognize that they are not being served by the", "rollercoaster of planned obsolescence. Although ", "open source software currently evolves at approx- ", "imately the same pace as corporate software, there", "can be no doubt that its development model has ", "more respect for cooperative standards. ", }; /*
*/