Re: Steve Ballmer is cracking up

[XML Everywhere <host@xmleverywhere.com>]

Let's put this into context... even during the
days of the Browser Wars, Microsoft
engineers internally fought over XML,
whether to use it and whether it
could be avoided with existing
technology.  Was XML really new
or was it an old sheep dressed in
new wolf's clothing?

After many intense battles, the
XML proponents won.  I wonder why
that is... did XML make software less
brittle, easier to prototype, easier to
integrate, ...  I suspect it's all of these
things and more.  Did it matter that XML is
'open' .. I'm sure Microsoft didn't
care much about openness at the beginning,
but now I think they understand that
openness is a necessary evil,
if only to keep their thousands of
programmers in line.

These things are all orthogonal:  GUI, PC, XML.  They
all help solve a problem in a different way.
Windows isn't going anywhere, neither is
Gnome etc.  These things are all very
"big" and it's difficult to say which is biggest.
It hardly matters.

Who knows what Steve really thinks about.
It doesn't matter much when you're the 800
pound gorilla, does it?  At least MSXML3
works, and MSXML4's bugs will get fixed,
maybe at least by the time it is released "for real."
I'm happy that a parser ships with every
copy of Windows, although exactly which
set of functionality is always a crap shoot.

And finally, Microsoft is bigger than all of us
combined.  I guess Steve didn't think it
would help his cause had he mentioned
that.

But anyway, to sum up:  XML
is officially in the mainstream even though
many developers are losing their
jobs day after day after day.  Who knows
what is in store for us in this insane technology
universe.  How are companies like
Ariba going to pull out of the tailspin?

Live by XML, die by XML.  In 1998,
XML was a great marketing tool.
Market caps soared just by announcing
"plans" to incorporate XML into products.
Today it's just technology that can
be used effectively or not, like SQL
or anything else.  But for the most
part, the investment community
just yawns.  Been there, done that,
lost $100 million.  The money has
scattered like cockroaches leaving
many of our employers in the
dust.  Last stop:
http://fuckedcompany.com

I'm sure most of you out there
are reading this email on Windows.
XML or not, Microsoft wins.  XML will
no doubt help them get to where
they want to go.  Probably faster
than their competition.

And by the way, this is not a diatribe
against Microsoft.  The US Attorneys
General can shove it.  They've done
enough damage already, and I'm sure
my friends at IBM, Sun, and Oracle
pine for the good old days
before they heard the words
"Judge Penfeld Jackson"

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sanjay Sharma" <leoaugust@yahoo.com>
To: "Ken North" <ken_north@compuserve.com>; <xml-dev@lists.xml.org>;
<veillard@redhat.com>; <tbray@textuality.com>
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2001 1:55 PM
Subject: Re: Steve Ballmer is cracking up



Tim Bray <tbray@textuality.com> wrote
... he hollered (but then he always hollers) "XML IS BIGGER THAN THE GUI!
BIGGER THAN THE PC!

_________________

I think the situation is completely the reverse.

  1.. GUI is bigger than XML.
  2.. And, GUI is bigger than the PC.
  3.. And, PC is bigger than XML (because it would be hard to implement XML
efficiently without a Digital Computer).