>I certainly have no idea as to HOW MS could be 'convinced' to change.
>
>One hope is that, as more and more non-techies get computers to simply use, they will get frustrated at a device that is far more frustrating than a dishwasher or a TV or a car. I remember the days when a car needed frequent oil changes and maintenance and still broke down regularly. We don't see that any more. Hopefully we can get there with Win before too much longer.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Jim N

Jim,

We got better automobiles pretty much as a direct result of getting whacked by the Japanese at our own productivity game. They completely bought into Edward Demming's notion of Total Quality Control and as a result my little '78 toyota station wagon with a 1200 cc engine and over 110,000 miles did not ever drop one drop of oil, which I thought was pretty amazing.

The only equivilent I see on the horizon is the massive programming efforts from our good friends in India. They seem to "get it" on a pretty large scale and, truth be known, a lot of companies including Microsoft are using these inexpensive talents.

Fortunately for us the demand is still outstripping the supply *and* our particular industry pretty much requires at least one hand's on individual.

I, too, hope for better, more stable products to use but there will be consequences, most of which I'd put in the unintended category. *g*

Best,