The industry's Windows wall of shame
Lockergnome highlights three major brands that can't seem to abandon the Windows fixation: World of Warcraft, Gametap, and Netflix. The first two I can (moderately) understand. But why should a user be forced to use Microsoft's ActiveX to get the most out a DVD rental service? Does it provide some secret value that having a wider swath of users wouldn't more than make up for?
Nope.
For those web developers who continue to fixate on IE, you could at least support Firefox and IE equally, and not on any particular operating system. The world is opening up. You should, too. Good design doesn't depend on a particular operating system. That's Microsoft's lock-in schtick. It need not be yours.
P.S. Yes, I know the services above also support the Mac - at least, in part. That's not the point. The point is developing in such a way that other platforms like Linux don't become second-class citizens.
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
So, this is an, "I love linux and you should too!" post. You probably should change the topic. This reads like a bad forum fanboy post.
What's more (and this is why your post is so funny), You should read some of the previous posts before writing a comment: the post writer is a chronic Mac fan :)
It's about security too, please read http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/ActiveX-Under-Seige-Facebook-MySpace-Image-Uploaders-Vulnerable/ and http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/security/activex_controls_out_of_control.html
Also, Linux was already a third-class citizen, almost hated by everyone else. Just putting it out there. besides, i don't see why you had to drag microsoft in here...these people don't support linux(gasp! the...hundreds...are up in arms!!)
p.s. I don't mean this to be infamatory in anyway, i know linux now has millions of users.
P.S. I use Firefox almost exclusively, and Netflix works fine on it.
- by LaptuaZ February 8, 2008 3:36 PM PST
- All I hear is /whine my web pages look like crap cause I dont use something billions of other people do...fix it!
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- by civilordergone February 8, 2008 8:45 PM PST
- Sharepoint developer is the most bloated piece of software. MS managed to somehow take frontpage 2003 (which for the most part is a good product) and make it twice as slow. I find that developing in PHP is a lot faster than developing stuff in ASP.net and vb.net only because debugging is less of a hassle and passing information between pages is a lot cleaner. Maybe if you educate your thick little head then you'll be less conceited.
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- by xnowimcoolx February 8, 2008 10:07 PM PST
- ummm ... that's called laziness ... the simple solution is not always the best.
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(9 Comments)I dev in IE ASP.Net C# for the simple reason, when I have a problem MSN or Google will find the answer...Ruby who? PHP What? Perl? Bottom line, it just works most of the time, its easy, I get paid lots for it, most problems whether they should happen or not are all presented with solutions by a simple search...
As for the other 'fanboy' comments, you guys do realize that this blog is about open source right, the whole intent (not of this single article, but the whole blog) is to explore open source solutions ...
he doesn't provide any solutions however