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<blockquote data-quote="catsclaw" data-source="post: 4148428" data-attributes="member: 59911">That's completely irrelevant.&nbsp; It's utterly the wrong question to ask.&nbsp; The relevant questions, broadly speaking, are:1) Would Sun be making more money if they didn't support open standards?2) Would Microsoft be making less money if they did?It seems reasonably clear that Sun thinks the answer to the first question is &quot;no&quot;, while Microsoft thinks the answer to the second question is &quot;yes&quot;.&nbsp; And there's an argument to be made that that's right for both of them--since Microsoft is in a dominant position in the market it can still try and muscle other companies to support it, while Sun relies on interoperability to move product.&nbsp; But even Microsoft felt threatened enough by Java and HTML to support them (and subsequently try to ruin the standard).&nbsp; They clearly feel there are some standards it would be a disaster to ignore.Maybe you better explain what you think we're discussing here.&nbsp; Because to me, it seems like we're absolutely talking about network effects and Metcalfe's Law and inter-platform compatibility and brand dilution and switching barriers.&nbsp; Really, the only difference between the d20 system and a programming language is the hardware they're designed to run on.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="catsclaw, post: 4148428, member: 59911"] That's completely irrelevant. It's utterly the wrong question to ask. The [i]relevant[/i] questions, broadly speaking, are: 1) Would Sun be making [i]more[/i] money if they didn't support open standards? 2) Would Microsoft be making [i]less[/i] money if they did? It seems reasonably clear that Sun thinks the answer to the first question is "no", while Microsoft thinks the answer to the second question is "yes". And there's an argument to be made that that's right for both of them--since Microsoft is in a dominant position in the market it can still try and muscle other companies to support [i]it[/i], while Sun relies on interoperability to move product. But even Microsoft felt threatened enough by Java and HTML to support them (and subsequently try to ruin the standard). They clearly feel there are some standards it would be a disaster to ignore. Maybe you better explain what you think we're discussing here. Because to me, it seems like we're [i]absolutely[/i] talking about network effects and Metcalfe's Law and inter-platform compatibility and brand dilution and switching barriers. Really, the only difference between the d20 system and a programming language is the hardware they're designed to run on. [/QUOTE]

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