- Users' needs trump developers' wants. Period. Particularly when--indeed, because--the great steaming mound of suckage that is IE6 still commands a market-share that most companies would kill for.
- Battles in the name of The Greater Good are not fought with slimy, underhanded tactics.
Yet I've also been more than slightly annoyed to find that the same version of Firefox can behave differently on two different platforms. So let's agree to stop pretending that it's just a Microsoft--or even closed-source--disease. Fancying otherwise is no different than the Asian countries who refused to confront AIDS by claiming that only dirty foreigners (and the prostitutes with whom they did trade) were the problem. Kthx.
Y'know, as much as I loathe the "High Priesthood" mentality that crops up time and again in I/T, I still find the ends-justify-the-means arguments more than a wee bit self-serving. And that's when they're not patently dangerous. And, within the zeitgeist of the torture memos brouhaha of this week or so, you can safely square that sentiment.
Users pay the bills. If you don't like it, by all means go all Richard Stallman and set up a cot for yourself in the server room, live on microwaved ramen noodles and sponge-bathe at the drinking fountain for all I care. Just keep my users out of it.
