Re: Paper size

On Thu, May 02, 2002 at 10:13:06PM -0400, Henry Spencer wrote:
> On Thu, 2 May 2002, Markus Kuhn wrote:
> > > That does make a very convenient excuse for insisting that the other guys
> > > incur all the pain of conversion.  Unfortunately, this does *not* help in
> > > selling the idea, which was exactly my point. 
> > 
> > You misunderstood. *We* went through the necessary conversion pain
> > already last century.
> 
> You misunderstood too.  I'm talking about practical politics, not about
> right and wrong.  Inappropriate though it might be, you will have a much
> easier time selling a conversion to North Americans if you have to convert
> at the *same time*.  "Oh, we converted long ago" is not a selling point;
> "we think compatibility is important enough that we will join you in
> sacrificing our current preferences and switching to a common standard" is.
> 
> It's not an accident that when a standards body adopts some existing design
> as the basis of a standard, it often makes small changes and additions.

> Quite apart from any *technical* merit that has, it means that the existing
> design's current vendors have to make changes too; this helps sell the
> new standard to people who will have to retool completely for it.

Apart from the technical merits, I don't think that a country which did not
follow the move while all others did move, will never convince others to
move again, and to another place.  And that's highly political, 
<flame mode=deliberate>
especially in those times when, again and again, we see in various fields
the US attempting to force its own will on other countries (think about
software patents, or attempting to bring war here and there).
</flame>

If you add the technical merits to this, maybe you can get a grasp on the
situation, as seen (by a fair number of people I think) from outside of the
US.  On the political side, a country can't piss over all other countries
just for fun, especially when those other countries do make efforts, and
even if they're a large country with a great influence.

I guess everyone understood that it was going to cost more money as time
goes by.  If the US decided to wait, OK, the US will spend more money,
that's all.  It's the rule of the game.

Regards,
-- 
Yann Dirson    <ydirson@xxxxxxxxxx> |    Why make M$-Bill richer & richer ?
Debian-related: <dirson@xxxxxxxxxx> |   Support Debian GNU/Linux:
Pro:    <yann.dirson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> |  Freedom, Power, Stability, Gratuity
     http://ydirson.free.fr/        | Check <http://www.debian.org/>