Class "B" forsale (fwd)

Sun Mar 9 18:52:23 UTC 1997

Bret fumed:
--
I could turn around tomorrow and create an MUA
that doesn't follow the SMTP RFC except in the most remote cases and whats
going to happen? _NOTHING_, why? because RFCs simply are not the GOSPEL, and
lets face it, stupid traditions are just that, stupid traditions, this is no
longer your cozy little lounge, there are millions of people here and just
because you got here first doesn't mean you're allowed to make decisions for
the rest of them.
--

oh please do -  it is a great business plan for you to do that (at least for
the rest of us)

"standards", standards-track RFCs among them, are generally not "enforced".
If I recall correctly many governments tried to do that with GOSIP, sure
did that set of standards a lot of good.  Some standards are not even perfect. 
But building to a standard is far better for the consumer (remember twisted-
pair Ethernet before the 10BaseT standard?) and better for the vendor.
Just because you decide to start building twisted pair Ethernet after the
standard was adopted does not mean that it all that good a business plan
to do so in a way that is not complient with 10BBaseT.

Scott