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Xref: sserve comp.unix.misc:10496 comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit:5125 comp.unix.bsd:13073 comp.windows.x.i386unix:5757 biz.sco.general:9265 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!haven.umd.edu!darwin.sura.net!blaze.cs.jhu.edu!rhombus.cs.jhu.edu!not-for-mail From: bogstad@rhombus.cs.jhu.edu (Bill Bogstad) Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit,comp.unix.bsd,comp.windows.x.i386unix,biz.sco.general Subject: Re: SCO market share Date: 12 Dec 1993 15:23:58 -0500 Organization: The Johns Hopkins University, Computer Science Department Lines: 26 Message-ID: <2efuku$4vj@rhombus.cs.jhu.edu> References: <WAYNE.93Dec8164902@backbone.uucp> <hastyCHsyEG.Mun@netcom.com> <1993Dec11.012449.99@kf8nh.wariat.org> <2ec989$knu@vanbc.wimsey.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: rhombus.cs.jhu.edu In article <2ec989$knu@vanbc.wimsey.com>, Stuart Lynne <sl@vanbc.wimsey.com> wrote: >... >This is a fact that is *not* lost on application software vendors. People >who don't like to pay money for the OS also don't usually like to spend >money on application software. So the vendors don't worry about the number >of users of Linux/Minix/*bsd/?? simply because they don't view them as >potential customers. Please. Nobody ever likes paying money for anything if they can get the exact same thing for free. ("same thing" includes support, future updates, compatibility with the rest of the world, etc.) Except for hacker types (myself included), most computer users really don't care what operating system they use AS LONG AS IT LETS THEM DO WHAT THEY WANT WITH THEIR COMPUTER. The operating system doesn't do that for most of them and is essentially worthless to those users. For most people what they want is word processing, spreadsheets, and databases. A small, struggling company with good desktop publishing software for Unix systems might consider some kind of joint distribution with one of the even smaller companies that distributes packaged Linux or *BSD systems. Get a couple of companies together with a good product in each of the 3 catagories above and who knows what would happen. Or maybe not... Bill Bogstad bogstad@cs.jhu.edu