Good enough.. Always depends on who you are asking.
It also also implies that it could be better, admitting obvious shortcomings.
The supplier will find it good enough when the product meets the requirement specs.
The customer will find it good enough when the product actually supports the business process.
The end user will (almost) never find the product good enough.
Its just a matter of getting the contracts right. Dealing with large government projects, thats as easy as it is impossible :)
The problem with good enough is that it colides with quality. And bad quality is always expensive in the long run.
The supplier: Just be good at two things. Customer expectation management (do the talk) and Estimating/Developing (do the walk)
The customer: You can't manage what you dont understand. So understand what you are dealing with. Alot of IT managers dont have a clue about IT at all, especially in the government sector.

Looks a lot like the almost 50 year old project Xanadu :D
With cross platform event subscriptions ad libitum?

http://www.xanadu.net/
http://transliterature.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Xanadu

Add both as standards..Why not?

If only MS would add support for SVG and CANVAS. Take a look at this comparison chart:
http://www.naxos-software.de/blog/index.php?/archives/45-Interactive-Cross-Browser-Vector-Graphics-on-Top-of-SVG,-VML,-Canvas,-Silverlight-using-Dojos-GFX.html
But MS is rather going for Silverlight as their answer to Flash. Just like that ASP.NET was MS's answer to the internet (it was not working).
As of today Flash does the job while Silverlight might in a couple of years if ever.
Never the less having to rely on third party plugins always sucks.
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However thanks to initiatives like dojo gfx and others. It is possible to have drawing capabilities with DHTML and pure javascript.
The approach is to wrap the current browsers supported drawing API like SVG, CANVAS or VML. Check the link below. See the Link section in above link.
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A primitive but practical approach to get (simple) drawing capabilities is making your own drawing library that paints using the good old div tag.
I know that it sounds ridiculous, but Walter Zorn have made a quite useful library, that some use for charts, diagrams, rounded corners etc. See below link.
http://www.walterzorn.com/jsgraphics/jsgraphics_e.htm#performance
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It would be nice if all the browser vendors would sit down and agree on a very simple drawing API, that would make it possible to draw polygons and primitives and do translations in a cross browser environment.
And then compete on the more advanced plugins for those who need it (the add business who makes annoying banners).
Right now the most experienced and stubborn developers can get around without having to bother with plugins by hacking their own libraries or using open-source alternatives.
Over time libraries like dojo gfx will translate into new standard gfx API's that I guess will help MS to join the rest of the world and become part of the internet.
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Someone please try to talk some sense into MS next time you meet :)
Just tell them that they are losing the internet battle.