When it comes to compatibilty, computers are alot like people.
For computers to communicate with one another and allow for a relationship to develop, they need to speak the same language.
Logically, as our world gets smaller, access to information should be getting easier. It's not.
Microsoft has forced it's users into an arranged marriage with it's software. The Microsoft browser, Internet Explorer comes "free" with Windows, which is how Microsoft won the browser wars of the late 1990's.
Now, it's impossible to view some websites unless you have the latest version of Internet Explorer. As a Mac user, it is becoming increasingly obvious that Microsoft is once more gaining ground and is playing hardball with Apple Macintosh. According to Microsoft's website: "as of January 31st, 2006, Internet Explorer for the Mac is no longer available for download from Microsoft. It is recommended that Macintosh users migrate to more recent web browsing technologies such as Apple’s Safari". I'm sure Mac is not entirely void of blame, but it is ultimately the users who lose.
At American Express, for example, job seekers are greeted with this warning: “At this time, the system does not support Mac environments. If you don’t have access to a PC at home or work, please check out a local public library for Internet access, local Internet cafes, or the nearest government Work Force Center.”
Locally, I experienced extreme frustration while trying to make a booking on kulula.com. It seems that Kulula, witty and entertaining as they may be, has unwittingly excluded a large chunk of its clients by optimising its website for Internet Explorer. "This site has been optimized for IE 6+ incompatibilities experienced with other browsers are being investigated". Was it merely serendipity that Microsoft disallowed Mac users and Kulula updated its website, both at the end of January 2006?
All of this is threatening to change the nature of the web as an open, nonproprietary information resource.
Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web stated in 1996: "Anyone who slaps a 'this page is best viewed with Browser X' label on a Web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web . . . ".
What is lacking in the relationship between operating systems is a willingness to learn compliance.
In an article on human compatibility written for the journal Psychology Today, the writer stresses that human compatibilty is not determined by an inventory of personal traits; it is a process, something you make.
Lest we forget that the intelligence of computers is on the outside, not in the box, the responsibility lies with the manufacturers of these gadgets to work hard at ensuring that they can talk to one another.
No relationship can flourish in an environment where both parties are intent on getting as much out of the relationship as they can now, with no view for the future, and especially ignorant of the possibilities and potential of the internet. Being proprietary about one's own code can spell the end to any relationship.
If the powers that be want to invest in the future they should be focussing less on bringing down the enemy and more on propagating free and open source software, making computing cheaper and more accessible and bridging the digital divide.
Jonathan Schwartz from Sun microsystems claims that we are moving away from the Information Age and into the Participation Age, "where an open and competitive network fuels growing opportunities for everyone - not simply to draw data or shift work around the world, but to participate, to create value and independence. If the Information Age was passive, the Participation Age is active". © Debbie smit – The Sunday Independent
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