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Story: KDE to include Google-type desktop search
Posted by: Marc (Friday 27 August 2004, 10:12 AM)
One of the best things about linux is its innovation. If there is one arguement above all others on why Microsoft shouldn't be allowed to enforce a total monopoly on the desktop market is that innovation is seriously suffering.
In the 70's and 80's, within every 5 years we would see totally new and exciting ways of basically using a computer. These days what's changed in the last 5 or even 10 years? the basically same Windows NT code with a blue taskbar and start menu?
For example, look at how plain and hopeless the Internet Explorer user interface is, sure the underneath code is good (except for the many security holes and bugs of course), but the user interface is by far the worst of the modern browsers when compared to say Mozilla's tabbed browsing or Konqueror's smart internet and local hard drive browsing side by side technique.
Its this innovation which drives the IT industry, nowadays however, like so many industries that fall victim to a monopoly (telephones, railways, power - all until recently) innovation totally goes out the window. With telephones for example its only now under pressure from competitors that BT offer (quite) cheap broadband - which could have been offered 10 maybe even 15 years ago if BT had been forced by the market to do so.
The same I think can be said for IT, hopefully over the next 10 years as Microsoft is forced to start innovating by Linux we will all end up with better, more reliable software.
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