3 ms·
Sometimes I wonder how much of this drama is staged, or at least welcomed, by both parties. I remember back in the 90s how the desktop war was always discussed
by pohl 16y ago
Sometimes I wonder how much of this drama is staged, or at least welcomed, by both parties.
I remember back in the 90s how the desktop war was always discussed in terms of opposing giants. It was always PC versus Apple. There were a lot of interesting competitors that had to struggle to get a mention: OS/2, NeXTstep, BeOS. You see that in the browser wars, too, with how Opera has to struggle to even get a mention.
The same pattern plays out in the DVCS space: it's always Git versus Mercurial. Sorry bzr, no mention for you.
So I wonder, is this enormous conflict between titans really just their way of freezing Windows Phone 7 and Palm out of the trade press?
- sreque 16y agoAt least with git vs. mercurial, I'm pretty sure there's no marketing department on either side scheming to start a war between each other to choke out the other alternatives. Similarly, both Apple and Google might welcome the press, but that's very different from actually staging it.
- pixelbath 16y agoMore like each press outfit wants to draw more links by sensationalizing conflicts, whether real or imagined. Other press outfits don't want to be second with the story, so they run their own exciting stories. At that point, it's an arms race of words. Whenever two competing companies actually compete, it's "war" and "slugfest" and similarly overblown adjectives that Americans are now quite familiar with. It's stupid, but it's the media, and just the way it is. When Windows Phone 7 starts becoming available, we might hear as much about it (if it's compelling enough not to be marginalized).