dingman - 4:03 pm on Jun 24, 2003 (gmt 0)

Sorry about the delay. I apparently went home yesterday without hitting "submit".

enable the user to go offline to work on the data

That's not a web app :) As far as I know, the best cross-platform solution for that is Java, which I'm still skeptical of because I've seen so few stable Java apps. I'm not sure how much of that sort of thing you can do in Moz, since I don't usually write such things.

Talkin of servers, I think it's interesting to note that many Windows-based servers provide support for Perl, PHP, CGI and ASP, ASP.NET blah blah... the same breadth of options cannot be said of *nix based servers.

Warning, politics: And it's the result of *nix people being more inclusive in their efforts. That is the case because nearly all such technologies for *nix servers are one flavor or another of Free software, so even if I wanted to there's nothing I can do to stop you from porting my cool new *nix server tool to run on Windows, wherase it's darned near impossible for anyone but M$ to add ASP support to anything without their blessing. I feel somewhat sick at the thought of someone porting my community site software to MS SQL Server instead of PostgreSQL, but if it achieves any significant popularity someone will probably decide to, and on principle I won't stop them. (Or even have any right to, since I'll release the code under the GPL) All this ends up meaning more choice in what you decide to mix and match with *nix/Free stuff. (Notwithstanding the fact that I'm certainly no MS fan, I see many of the same fundamental problems with proprietary *nix software, too)

there can't be cross-technological support for features that aren't within the realms of those same competitors

My experience is that in 99% of cases, there are cross-platform options that do what I want, too, they just use different APIs to do it. Mozilla, for example, is actually a very capable application platform, and it runs on *nix, Windows, Mac, and I don't know what all else.

Though standards may always be on a "catch-up" mission, there comes a time when even the likes of NN4 etal are left behind.

Yech - NN4 was every bit as bad as IE about adding wierd proprietary headache-inducing "enhancements". Those two teamed up to make Mosaic my favorite browser for years after it should have been obsolete :)

A choice which is as much debilitating as it is liberating.

Worlds better than market w/o choice though, isn't it? I just think that right now there are plenty of choices in open, cross-platform solutions without needing to fall back on proprietary development tools that can restrict what I do in the future. I've never taken the stance that I wouldn't use proprietary software when there was a compelling reason, I just find very few compelling reasons. For example, with Gecko out there, I have no need for proprietary browsers other than to test and make sure I support them. However, before Mozilla reached a usable stage, I certainly used NN4, with all its flaws, because it was the best browser at the time. (I know some people thought IE was. I disagreed. Besides, it would have had to be a heluva lot better to justify paying for the BSOD just to use IE) Before OpenOffice was good enough for my needs, I bought ApplixWare, and I'll admit that there are things about it that I miss. (I don't miss Word or Word Perfect.) Having seen a few places get really screwed by lock-in effects, though, I do tend to find that a compelling reason to avoid anything controlled by a single company.