Re: The Death of TCP/IP

[Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu]

On Sun, 05 Aug 2001 22:26:00 EDT, Wojtek Zlobicki <wojtekz () idirect com>  said:

> Agreed, BUT .... as stated by Cringley himself, Microsoft tailors their
> software to the
> populus.  Wow a software company listening to its users, what a travesty.

Does a manufacturer of *any* product have a moral obligation to give their
customers what they ask for, if they know that it would be a bad/unsafe idea?

I'm sure consumers would want a backyard gas grill that can heat itself up
to cooking temperature in 5 seconds flat.  The average consumer may not
realize that this also means you're 7 seconds away from a fire, but  the
design engineers should know that.

There *are* successful corporations that make a conscious decision to
disregard the customers when they feel they have a moral obligation to
do so.  I know Chick-Fil-A loses my business every time I want a chicken
sandwich on Sunday.  I'm sure *most* of their customers wish they were
open on Sunday - but they have their reasons, clearly explained on a big
sign on every store I've been in.

Also, remember that when Microsoft says "We just gave users what they asked for",
there's a *VERY* good chance that (a) the users didn't know they had a *CHOICE*
(you don't believe me, stop 50 people in front of a WalMart sometime, and ask them
if a PC can run anything other than Windows), and (b) would probably answer
differently if the question was rephrased ("Would you want more ease-of-use
features, if those features also meant that some hacker from a Third World country
could use them to hack into your computer, take your credit card numbers, and
generally make your life miserable?").

-- 
                                Valdis Kletnieks
                                Operating Systems Analyst
                                Virginia Tech

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