To clarify the Open Standards debate

It is like Henry Ford setting the standard for early motoring with the Model T but somehow keeping the way roads work as a trade secret. I know it's difficult to imagine how to keep road information secret but I can't think of a better analogy so please just stick with it.

Sure, anyone is free to make a car to compete with Ford but their car will need it's own set of roads. How can they compete when the consumer already has roads that are local and well used. What benefit is there for the driver?

So what sort of car would we be driving now if Ford had been able to protect his market in this way. Well I think, as there would be no incentive to take commercial risks on radical re-designs, it would be built by extending the existing model. As others came up with features that might give competitive advantage Ford would add these features on to the basic machine. By now we would have a model T chassis with everything bolted on to the outside. A great lumbering beast the size of a quarry truck, a huge inefficient engine to pull it all and a massively complex subsystem stop the whole thing wobbling into the ditch when you go for a drive.

Competition among manufacturers has given far more progress in the automotive world than Ford would have made alone but it didn't make Henry the richest man in the world. Sharing the roads may not have been in Fords interest but it certainly benefits the consumer. Not sharing them protects a monopoly and kills creativity AND capitalism.

The PC has progressed a great deal since the original IBM PC. That's because IBM (for various reasons) couldn't stop others from making their own version and extending the model. MS Office hasn't progressed nearly as fast, though every few years a new version is available with certain incompatibilities that force us to 'upgrade'.

Cars are faster, safer, more efficient and cheaper than ever before. PC's are faster, safer, more efficient and cheaper than ever before. Open source software is faster, safer, more efficient and cheaper than ever before. Windows and MS office are none of the above. Now get into your sleek and shiny BMW, sit in it's air conditioned, sound insulated, blaupunkt stereo'd opulence and reflect on why some people seem to hate Microsoft so much.