Ken wrote:
> 
> I accept and respect platform diversity. I will point out though
> that those people who operate on these systems do so with the full
> knowlege that they have inherent limitations that Windows users
> do not suffer from the biggest of which if software diversity and
> support.

*IF* there was some insurmountable limitation in the OS or hardware that
made the software impossible to port, or if the other markets were too
small to be viable, you might have an argument.. but since there isn't,
and they clearly aren't, this is ridiculous. You claim that software
availability is platform-inherent, which is likewise ridiculous.

I could make a similar argument to yours about HTML news and email, but
I won't pursue that at this point, because I happen to be opposed to
those things, and do not wish to be a devil's advocate.

> I think you fail to recognize that as a Mac user you are in a niche
> market.

Not at all. I simply refuse to accept Windows as a standard, de facto or
otherwise. It's simply not nearly good enough to embrace as the One True
Way to compute. All the other Mac users and *nix users and BeOS users
and what have you clearly agree with this sentiment or else they would
be using Windows, and I would suggest that there are a fair number of
Windows users who would agree as well; for a majority platform, it
certainly seems to be unpopular.

Given this opposition, it would seem that the socially responsible thing
to do (inasmuch as online computer users are a "society") would be to
use file formats, codecs, etc. that allow one, within reason, to choose
how they compute, rather than forcing people into one mode just because
it's there and it's what you FEEL like using.. again, in much the same
way that most people prefer to eliminate HTML from email and news posts,
despite the features that HTML would offer, because the greater benefit
is had by allowing people to use the reader, system, and network
connection of their choosing (or at least, what's available to them at
the time).

If you and others who agree with you cannot see the logic of this, then
instead, I request that a new newsgroup, created specifically for DivX
files, be split off from p.b.a. This way, those people who refuse to
accept their social responsibility can at least spare the rest of us
from having to waste our time and bandwidth on their posts.

-Xplo

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