Embrace, extend, control
Saturday, October 11th, 2003 12:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robinturnerReaders will already be familiar with my hatred of Microsoft, and may be inclined to scroll down on seeing yet another LJer moaning about Windows or Internet Explorer. This post, however, concerns non-computing issues. Not content with perverting standards and flooding the software market with buggy products, Bill Gates seems now to have turned his "embrace, extend, control" philosophy toward the English language. Take this quotation, for example:
Given Microsoft's previous record on "innovation" (i.e. taking someone else's product or standard, tweaking it a bit and selling it at an inflated price), I wonder what the status of words like "architected" might be. In the unlikely instance of our wanting to use such monstrosities, will we have to purchase a licence to do so? Will MS English (also to be known as E#) be compatible with industry standards like SAE and RP, or will it follow the trend of Java and HTML "optimisations"? Will it contain security holes enabling American teenagers to infect essays with the "SO.NOT" virus?
Architected? I am all for creativity in language (or "innovation", as Gates would call it) but this is pointless. There is already a verb to describe the process that results in architecture: "build".
Bill Gates was recently asked if Microsoft software might eventually be available only for rent through .NET, and replied "I believe in the long run things will be architected that way" (2003 and Beyond).
Given Microsoft's previous record on "innovation" (i.e. taking someone else's product or standard, tweaking it a bit and selling it at an inflated price), I wonder what the status of words like "architected" might be. In the unlikely instance of our wanting to use such monstrosities, will we have to purchase a licence to do so? Will MS English (also to be known as E#) be compatible with industry standards like SAE and RP, or will it follow the trend of Java and HTML "optimisations"? Will it contain security holes enabling American teenagers to infect essays with the "SO.NOT" virus?
