You guys really take this stuff seriously don't you!!
Loosen up and have a laugh once in a while.
I use DOS/Win3.1/Win95 and I'm sure I'll use Win98 shortly.
After adapting to the quirks of each I thank Bill and his merry men at
Microsoft for a pleasant desktop solution to my needs.
........but if you can't have a laugh at the guys expense what can you
do? : ))

keep on stamp'n and pic'n
Jamen Porteus

Darryl Newberry wrote:

> At 09:44 2/23/98 -0500, you wrote:
> >I'm not trying to stifle discourse, but just realize that when you
> use
> >powerful e-mail to pass along the latest "innocent" funny that you
> are
> >wittingly or unwittingly participating in an effective advertising
> >campaign.
> >
> >IMHO, Tom
>
> Loosen up, Tom. Do you realize that even by writing what you wrote,
> you are
> also participating in "effective advertising"? ;-)
>
> I recall someone once saying "There is no such thing as bad
> publicity".
>
> Personally, I dis- and mis-trust all government and big corporations,
> but
> especially that which blatantly attempts to quash competition through
> negative advertising and dissemination of partial and misinformation.
> Or,
> in the case of government, through lobbyist-influenced legislative
> meddling. Come to think of it, this includes basically all government
> and
> large corporate interests.
>
> In plain english, I detest hype in all its forms. Ergo, I detest much
> of
> what Microsoft puts forth, i.e. Active, Direct, MFC, X. Sun and their
> Java-bloat crap is just as hype-filled, and just as unpalatable to me.
>
> Distasteful as it may be, we pretty much have to at least understand
> it for
> what it is and work with it if required.
>
> But, back to the [OT] topic. Bill Gates is no more greedy or sinister
> than
> the robber barons of the past--Sinclair, Mellon, etc. This is not
> necessarily a bad thing.  Consider the pre-1974 AT&T/Bell System. Yes,
> it
> was a monopoly, but it promoted standardization, universal
> penetration, and
> balanced technological growth, while maintaining very high quality of
> service. Without invention, greed, and free markets, and yes, even
> sometimes the resulting monopolies, we would likely still be counting
> stones and hunting our food with spears.
>
> So let's quit picking on Bill Gates. Besides, if he gets too
> megalomaniacal
> you can bet that the Justice Department will get ugly. Remember, Ma
> Bell
> eventually lost.
>
> -dn