Home
Open Source, Open Standards and the Automobile Industry
If computers were cars and if Microsoft were in charge of standards, every model year the world's roads would all have to be torn up, and redone, because the new model wouldn't be compatible with the old roads, and then, in order to use the new roadways, we would all have to get new cars.
Using the automobile industry as an analogy for certain aspects of the computer industry often helps to clarify some concepts. Microsoft was one of the first to use this analogy when it said that if General Motors made automobiles like the computer industry made computers, we "would driving 25-dollar cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon."
For those of you who have been wondering about some of the press articles regarding the state of Massachusetts plans to adopt open standards for office technology, this article provides an extension to the analogy that seems to us to be bang on.
