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Xref: sserve comp.os.386bsd.misc:2934 comp.os.linux.misc:20653 Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msuinfo!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!pipex!sunic!trane.uninett.no!nac.no!eunet.no!nuug!EU.net!uunet!brunix!mhw From: mhw@cs.brown.edu (Mark Weaver) Subject: Re: Usefulness of BSD/Linux Source Knowledge (was BSD vs. LINUX) Message-ID: <1994Jul31.044558.12981@cs.brown.edu> Summary: How to compete with the free OSes Sender: news@cs.brown.edu Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science References: <30jqp1$ees@grex.cyberspace.org> <1994Jul24.185248.5906@escape.widomaker.com> <michaelv.775258838@ponderous.cc.iastate.edu> <1994Jul28.025818.6937@escape.widomaker.com> Date: Sun, 31 Jul 1994 04:45:58 GMT Lines: 40 In article <1994Jul28.025818.6937@escape.widomaker.com>, Shannon Hendrix <shendrix@escape.widomaker.com> wrote: >: I would say "not". In fact, most everyone who has been with Sun for >: awhile only went to Solaris 2 after clawing and scratching, and being >: forced to by lack of new hardware support in their older BSD SunOS. > >I agree that it seems forced. But I still think it is going to happen. >Sun and a lot of other vendors seem hell-bent to change to SysV. That >and Motif. This is the vendors' way of competing with the free OSes. By creating a generation of programs that are written to work with SysV and Motif, they are giving the market a strong reason to buy commercial OSes. The painful move to Solaris was a necessary and calculated move on Sun's part. NetBSD, FreeBSD, and Linux should not be fighting against each other. They're all remarkable accomplishments, and all have their characteristic advantages and disadvantages. Many say that the enemy is Microsoft, and this is true. But I also say the enemy are the vendors that try to sell for big bucks what we all enjoy for free. The users of all three systems know that we get stability, performance, and support that generally exceeds what the vendors give the poor clueless suckers. This gives us common ground. I've spent a fair amount of time reading this thread, and it honestly makes me very sad. It says something about human nature to watch people with such a common bond spend their time quibbling over such small points. This is an example of why there will always be war. Mark -------------------------------------------------------------------- Email: Mark_Weaver@brown.edu | Brown University PGP Key: finger mhw@cs.brown.edu | Dept of Computer Science -- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Email: Mark_Weaver@brown.edu | Brown University PGP Key: finger mhw@cs.brown.edu | Dept of Computer Science