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July 26, 2007

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Joshua Allen [msft]

Funny! I remember in 1994 or so, MSFT used this kind of marketing against IBM -- we would explain how IBM mainframe architecture was all about "central top-down command-and-control", while Windows for Workgroups was "peer to peer", grassroots, and ad hoc. That philosophy is why we packaged free TCP/IP client way before anyone asked for it. Of course, you could argue that some things have changed since then.

I would note that the ideas here aren't new. The tension between competition and cooperation is the oldest story of mankind. It underlies every ancient myth and religion, and more modern things like socialism (cult of cooperation) or capitalism (cult of liberty). The stories biologists tell us today, from which we draw moral lessons until a new story comes along, are not so different from the stories the Greeklings learned about "demiurge" and "aeons" 2,000 years ago.

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