From: Conrad Schneiker <schneiker@...>
Date: 2001-10-06T14:21:39+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:22153] Re: Let's work on Windows support

Hi,

"David Alan Black" <dblack@candle.superlink.net> wrote:

> I have briefly tried to understand .NET, and don't, so I may be wrong.
> But judging from the fact that there are .NET versions of different
> languages, I have to assume that .NET is yet another attempt by
> Micros**t to make everything run only on MS, and to destroy all
> branches of computer culture which don't rely on MS and use MS
> proprietary standards.  Unless there's been a shift in their corporate
> strategy unlike any other such shift in the history of corporations,
> that would be a reasonable assumption.

Well, what if this time around they actually succeed in world domination? Do
you want Ruby to be locked out? :-)

> Therefore, I don't see how it can be good for Ruby.  I'm not trying to
> start an argument here; I'm just reasoning from what we know about
> Micros**t.

OK, that's a good question.

First, let's make the plausible presumption that your seemingly reasonable
reasoning is indeed eminently reasonable.

Even so, from the perspective of present and future prospective Ruby users
working for customers of MS OSes, .NET integration will inevitably be a
highly desirable feature. If MS has conquered 80% or 90% of the world's
desktops, do you want to increasingly doom increasingly more of their vast
population of potential Ruby users to a life of (heaven forbid!) Perl and
Python because Ruby rejected .NET even as .NET became the standard MS OS
interface? Please have mercy on the customers. :-)

Conrad