Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1998 18:35:46 -0700 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Of Microsoft and Juggernauts (Was: Regulated names) Message-ID: <4.1.19981226183321.05808b90@mail.lariat.org> In-Reply-To: <19981227113956.E12346@freebie.lemis.com> References: <4.1.19981226180014.057aee50@mail.lariat.org> <4.1.19981224112052.05a31740@127.0.0.1> <4.1.19981224174155.03dd8670@127.0.0.1> <368378AB.969463E2@uk.radan.com> <4.1.19981225181200.05a201b0@mail.lariat.org> <xzpg1a3mzhe.fsf@flood.ping.uio.no> <19981226131644.I12346@freebie.lemis.com> <4.1.19981226104824.05822710@mail.lariat.org> <36854A89.B393D402@uk.radan.com> <19981227112355.B12346@freebie.lemis.com> <4.1.19981226180014.057aee50@mail.lariat.org>
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At 11:39 AM 12/27/98 +1030, Greg Lehey wrote: >>> Well, you could hardly talk about ``original Hindi'' in this context. >>> Obviously it derives from Vedic via Sanskrit, and there's still some >>> dispute about how the accents evolved. And considering it means >>> ``Lord of the Earth'', it's a sobering thought when applied to >>> Microsoft. >> >> See my editorial on this very subject in the April/May 1998 issue of >> Visual Developer magazine. > >URL? Oops; they didn't put it online, so I'll post it here. Of Microsoft and Juggernauts by Brett Glass (First published in Visual Developer magazine) Of late, the computer trade press has had much to say about Microsoft, its business practices, and its ongoing struggle with the US Department of Justice. While the press (like everyone else) differs in is perception of the company, on may observe that the coverage seems to follow one nearly inviolable rule: at least once in every publication, an article must describe the Microsoft Corporation as a "juggernaut." Interesting term, that. While most of the reading public has a sense that the word means "something large and difficult to stop," very few know its rather fascinating origins -- much less its implications. And so, in the interest of enlightenment and education, we interrupt our usual, witty back-page banter to take you to an exotic scene long ago and far away: India at the time of the British occupation. In the Indian city of Puri stands a great temple dedicated to the Hindu god Vishu -- whose name, in the local dialect, happens to be "Jagganath." Each year, the residents of the city -- perhaps in an effort to boost the local economy -- hold an annual festival in honor of the god. Pilgrims from throughout the subcontinent flock to Puri to worship at the temple. The highlight of the festival is a great parade, whose featured attraction is a wagon bearing a huge stone statue of the deity (whose name the British heard and mispronounced "Juggernaut"). To the amazement of the British observers, devotees of the god demonstrated their religious zeal by throwing themselves to the ground in the middle of the street and prostrating themselves before the oncoming idol. The British further reported that the worshippers -- misjudging the massive vehicle's speed, or perhaps unable to elbow their way back into the crowd lining the street -- were frequently injured or crushed to death by the "Car of Juggernaut" as it lumbered on. We thus see that the application of the term "juggernaut" to Microsoft is ironic for three reasons. First, it unwittingly characterizes Microsoft not as a shrewd deity but as an idol -- a graven image that crushes those in its way via sheer mass rather than intellect. More ironic still, it highlights an important truth: the innocents who are crushed are those who throw themselves beneath the wagon's wheels. "Why," you may ask, "did the poor Indians flattened beneath the Car of Juggernaut do something so obviously reckless and dangerous?" Yet, company after company puts itself at Microsoft's mercy and is crushed in the process. Borland, Citrix, Quarterdeck, Stac.... All have created products primarily or exclusively for Microsoft platforms and then found their markets destroyed or co-opted by Microsoft. Users, too -- even some of the largest corporations -- make themselves dependent upon Microsoft's proprietary protocols, file formats, applications, and environments. They are then severely injured when the "deity" turns hostile (for example, by raising site license and support fees) or hurts these poor mortals via sheer carelessness (e.g. by introducing bugs and security holes). Finally, the third, and most delicious irony is this: the press, following the corporate lemmings over the cliff, brands as zealots those who DON'T throw themselves beneath the wagon wheels, rather than those who do. Conclusions, as usual, are left as an exercise for the reader. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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