I stopped at one of my favorite blogs today and was immediately annoyed by the comments surrounding a specific company’s product from the users of the competitive products and was compelled to say something.
It seems everywhere you go on the Internet today there is some purest egoistical group beating on their chests and bashing some company because they feel the tools they are using are either superior to the “bashee” or not and the bashee is about to make a move that is going to change the way we work and our beloved little program is going to fade of into the depths of the archives.
You can’t hardly go to a forum today without seeing this in some form or another. Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux and whoever else is out there in the mix. Flash & Flex vs. Silverlight, Netscape vs. IE, Safari vs. Firefox vs. IE vs. Opera vs. “your favorite browser here” Whaa whaa whaa … Don’t you ever get bored of complaining day in and day out?!?!?
Everyone is afraid that the Juggernaut is going to roll them over so you pick up your sticks and stones and try to toss them in its impervious face. On the other end, some brand spanking new competitive technology has emerged in directly in the your path and you notice as it lifts its head, that its eyes aren’t quite open yet or drool is dripping from its chin. You laugh and say what a dumb program daring to compete with “My” favorite program. (…kick)
Don’t forget that ALL programs started out this way! (even yours)
Of course today most of the fingers are pointing either to or from Microsoft which stands to reason since most of this is their fault. But where would YOU be without them. Think about that for just a moment…. Where would you be if Microsoft had not existed or would lose out to its rivals on an ongoing basis?
First of all, you would all be on a Mac or some other system of which the greater majority of you currently are not on. Not that is bad but it isn’t where you are today!
If they had not been around then your Mac and Linux boxes would most likely have some other super competitor to chew you up and the majority of people would still be with the system that offered the best cost and competitive edge ratio.
You could also be on a system that never developed because the lack of competition.
………. So don’t hope for them to fail so easily!
What about “Your” beloved program companies.. Are they really so innocent? You here about Microsoft swallowing up companies for the knowledge but isn’t that what your favorite company does?
Come on… be honest! It isn’t like Adobe had nothing to do with Macromedia or Interackt and whoever else. All of the major players are guilty of this at some level. and Thank God for that!!
The fact is that I’m happy it all happened!!! I’m glad that there is competition and takeovers and I’m even glad when it’s thwarted because the stronger at the moment won out and that’s good for me. Flash and Flex are much better programs because of the takeovers. Microsoft is a better company than before they took over some externally existing technologies. You may not always like how something happened but you are still benefiting from the event in some method or manner. You and I as individuals have better tools because of the fierce competition between the companies you constantly slam.
So change your position to a positive one. Stop all the competition bashing and hope that the competition is stronger than ever.
