this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2023
873 points (97.1% liked)
Programmer Humor
32555 readers
696 users here now
Post funny things about programming here! (Or just rant about your favourite programming language.)
Rules:
- Posts must be relevant to programming, programmers, or computer science.
- No NSFW content.
- Jokes must be in good taste. No hate speech, bigotry, etc.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
This of course ignores all the other times a new common standard succeeded
Doesn't that almost always require a significant government intervention/regulation.
Phone and laptop chargers converged from numerous standards to just a few all on their own I think, no?
Yes, but under treath of lawmakers mandating a single standard. And the EU has now forced a single standard anyway on smartphones, tablets, etc.
Although I agree that there are quite a few examples of a "naturally emerging" single standards without lawmaker intervention, but this is not really one of them...
That was for Apple.
The micro USB standard was also an EU thing, just voluntary, and not just for Apple.
Indeed, the law applied to all manufacturers, but no other manufacturer wanted to remain with microUSB Type-B 2.0 due to economies of scale, etc. The loophole that Apple used was available to everyone anyway, so it's not like they couldn't have followed suit.
I thought this is an example where standards in part converged naturally. But I agree that regulation was fundamental part of this process.