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Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Impressions: FreeBSD vs Linux
Message-ID: <DHOLLAND.94Apr17035558@husc7.harvard.edu>
From: dholland@husc7.harvard.edu (David Holland)
Date: 17 Apr 94 03:55:58
References: <2nq530$7hh@hecate.umd.edu> <2o2gsu$pmv@cleese.apana.org.au><2o6ral$shj@eve.ad
am.com.au> <hastyCo2r27.Js2@netcom.com><Co40Cs.16v4@austin.ibm.com><2ocl4a$dr4
@acme.gatech.edu> <DHOLLAND.94Apr12191510@husc7.harvard.edu><2op9q7$hqt@acme.gatech.edu>
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gt8134b@prism.gatech.edu's message of 16 Apr 1994 14:12:23 -0400 said:
> > > Extra functionality is never in itself harmful. Why are we even
> > > debating if dosemu is useful?
>
> >Extra functionality is indeed harmful if it interferes with other
> >functionality. This is (IMO, at least) one of the big problems with MS
> >Word.
>
> Thank you for carefully reading the whole sentence.
I did.
> The extra functionality ALL OTHER THINGS BEING EQUAL, never hurts. Of
> course any side effects may be harmful. So just leave out the side
> effects. Geez.
All other things are rarely equal. If you add in some new gee-whiz
feature, at the very least you make the program/system bigger. You may
make it slower, too. These are direct consequences of adding the extra
functionality. If this extra functionality is something 99% of the
people using the program/system don't use, it hurts nearly everyone
for nearly no benefit.
In the case of dosemu this doesn't apply, obviously, since dosemu is a
standalone unit. You don't want it, off to /dev/null.
You were the one who made a sweeping comment.
--
- David A. Holland | "The right to be heard does not automatically
dholland@husc.harvard.edu | include the right to be taken seriously."