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There are many standards and formats in the tech world – almost so many that it’s becoming ridiculous. I’m hoping that this is temporary, and now that computers and gadgets are finally growing up, things will settle down.
Here’s a few examples:
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USB vs. Firewire
Component vs. HDMI
HDMI Audio vs. Coax vs. Optical
NTFS vs. HFS+ vs. Ext2/3
SD vs. MS vs. CompactFlash vs. xD vs. SmartMedia
DVI vs. Dell DisplayPort
And, of course:
OS X vs. Windows vs. Linux
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On the topic of Mac vs. Windows, I don’t really think that’s as big of an issue as people are saying. Consumers need variety. If you want a Mac, get one. If you want a PC, get one. The competition between Microsoft, Apple, and yes, even Linux, is the driving force that keeps the OS marketplace from stagnating (with the exception of Vista…..)
But, the bottom line is that there is a difference between an experience noticeable to the user and something that, to most people, makes absolutely no difference.
Who’s to say that all digital cameras can’t read the same kind of memory card? And that all operating systems can’t use the same file system (natively)?
Think about it: What if there was no high-def format war? What if everything stayed separated between HD-DVD and Blu-ray? When put into context, it wouldn’t be that radical if things did turn out that way. But, thankfully, it didn’t – although I was personally rooting for HD-DVD because its name was more consistent to its predecessor, DVD.
Moving away from format/transmission, and into computers themselves, Let’s look at a software install on Windows.
What directory in Program Files will the program be installed to, and will it be a subfolder of another folder with the name of the company that created the software? Where will information be kept? Deep-buried keys scattered all over the registry? An INI? What about other files? Will it dump them in WINDOWS or system32?
This is just way too unclean for me, and is one reason why I love software installs on OSX. Almost everything pertaining to a specific program is bundled in its .app file. To “uninstall” the program, all you have to is delete the .app. A true example of conformity, as every application installs the same way.
Maybe this is just the “Geek OCD” coming out in me, but I really feel that a lot of trouble and confusion could be saved by unifying as much as possible, while still retaining the individuality of things that matter.