IT IS an old chestnut, but a telling one: if carmakers built vehicles as Microsoft produces software, they would come in only one colour, the dashboard would be incomprehensible and they would crash a lot.

• 这是一个很老套的笑话，但是却很生动：如果汽车制造商像微软编写软件一样来生产汽车，那么这些汽车将会是同一种颜色，仪表板让人无法理解，并且经常崩溃。