[vorbis] offtopic mailer discussion

[Kyle Rose]

> This is especially true since in the event that Microsoft did fix
> the bug by making the next version of OE standards compliant,
> anybody who followed them in the previous version would potentially
> have produced some broken software (which might then have to be
> changed again.)  Market share does not necessarily imply a right to
> violate published standards.

In some cases, sacrificing your high standards for interoperability
reasons *is* a good thing: the Xiph guys license the Ogg libraries
under a BSD-like license instead of a GPL-like license in order to
encourage use of the Ogg standard in *all* software, proprietary and
free; similarly, the GnuPG guys bent over backwards to put in
bug-for-bug compatibility with PGP's violations of the OpenPGP spec,
in order that more individuals would be able to switch to GnuPG and
slowly erode PGP's user base.  Without being coy, this *is* very
similar to MS's embrace-and-extend strategy: it works!

The difference in this case is primarily that Linux/UNIX users are
unlikely to switch to OE (and, thus, Windows) just because their MUA
doesn't play well with OE, so it's likely there's no advantage in the
author's eyes to putting in bug-for-bug compatibility at the expense
of standards.  The very idea that someone would get indignant at those
who choose to follow the standards and NOT bend over to compensate for
Microsoft's shortcomings is not only laughable, it's precisely the
opposite of the logical reaction.

Cheers,
Kyle
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