Microsoft Metaphors (fwd)

Forwarded message:

> Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 10:09:09 -0500
> From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
> Subject: Microsoft Metaphors

> What are the best metaphors to use when talking about a browser and an
> operating system? Is the combination like a car and an engine, or a car and
> a roofrack? A pair of gloves?

It seem to me to be like a car and a road map. It simply lets you address
the multiplicity of resources (ie destinations) out there in a convenient
model.


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At 09:47 AM 1/15/98 -0600, Jim Choate wrote:
>
>Forwarded message:
>
>> Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 10:09:09 -0500
>> From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
>> Subject: Microsoft Metaphors
>
>> What are the best metaphors to use when talking about a browser and an
>> operating system? Is the combination like a car and an engine, or a car and
>> a roofrack? A pair of gloves?
>
>It seem to me to be like a car and a road map. It simply lets you address
>the multiplicity of resources (ie destinations) out there in a convenient
>model.

A browser is a piece of software. How it is implemented has no effect on
what it
is: a tool used by people, running on a computer with an OS.

The computer is a building. The OS makes it a supermarket. The browser is the
map of the store showing what foods are in what aisles.

-dsr-

>> What are the best metaphors to use when talking about a browser and an
>> operating system? Is the combination like a car and an engine, or a car and
>> a roofrack? A pair of gloves?
>
>It seem to me to be like a car and a road map. It simply lets you address
>the multiplicity of resources (ie destinations) out there in a convenient
>model.

Or maybe a rental truck and a portable storage space.
One of Microsoft's big problems is that if what you want to do is
haul big stuff from place to place, you don't care what brand of truck/car
you use to pull your U-Haul Brand trailer, and similarly if what
you want to use is a Web browser with a Java engine that runs
platform-independent Java apps, you don't care if it's running on
Win95, Linux, SunOS, NintendoJava, or MacNeXTsTep.
So they want to sell you that Pickup-mounted camper that
only fits on a big Microsoft pickup-truck, as well as selling you
some GlueOn Fuzzy Dice that can't be uninstalled cleanly from rental
cars so you just buy the truck from them.
And they want to give you Internet Exploiter free, so you're stuck with
Fuzzy-Dice-Compliant Windows, rather than letting you get used
to Java-based browsers that run on anything. 
				Thanks! 
					Bill
Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com
PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF  3C85 B884 0ABE 4639