[OT] Free software versus software idea patents

[Martin Gregorie]

On Fri, 15 Apr 2011 08:01:42 +1000, Chris Angelico wrote:

> On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 7:36 AM, Martin Gregorie
> <martin at address-in-sig.invalid> wrote:
>> I think the only real evil is to set out to make a non-standards-
>> compliant server and then design client software that seeks to lock in
>> people to your server. FWIW I'm not certain that is anything that MS
>> deliberately set out to do.
> 
> IE 6. Why is it still around? Because MS deliberately set out to
> encourage companies to use its features (mainly in intranet
> applications).
>
Fair point, though I should point out that IIRC its contemporary rivals 
were often as bad when it came to standards compliance. I don't remember 
many standards-compliant browsers before the first release of Opera.

Never ascribe to malice things that can equally be achieved by 
incompetence.
 

-- 
martin@   | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org       |