@Don Mitchell

Don,

You have specified your situation - an economic conservative, rather than claiming any actual knowledge, implying a lack of technical know how in this matter. Whilst the MS bashing can get somewhat over the top at times, there are very very sound technical reasons for open standards - open standards promote a free market, and allow competition, allowing those with an idea to invest and profit from it.

Closed standards prevent new entrants to the market, removing the incentive from the incumbents to invest in development.

Any economic conservative should support open standards unless they are truly messianic regarding a complete lack of market interference, and those ones pretty much should disapprove of government, law, and the concept of a state too.

I have sympathy with your concerns, but I am afraid you really really need to go and research the matter in some depth before simply plumping for the incumbent. Unfortunately for your argument, whilst a collection of very technical people can get a little self referentially hysterical regarding things they perceive as 'unfair' (and acknowledged illegal practices confirmed in court to protect a monopoly position would fit into this description), nonetheless they are rarely actually wrong in consensus.

Certainly I would trust a collection of bright technical types with their politically naive views over a more savvy bunch of bright economic conservatives, if only because of the more intact sense of honesty that tends to exist within the technorati.

I am not implying anything regarding your own intellectual honesty, but I am quite happy to make a number of specific and definite accusations of many economic conservatives regarding their honesty which would be actionable if found to be untrue, whereas the number of 'geeks' who that could be done for are few. and generally it's their sense of reality you'd be challenging, not their honesty.

No, open standards are the technical equivalent of 'the market'. Without them no true market for technical development can exist.