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Xref: sserve comp.os.386bsd.misc:4962 comp.os.linux.misc:33722 comp.os.os2.advocacy:75029 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msunews!uwm.edu!lll-winken.llnl.gov!unixhub!news.Stanford.EDU!unix.sri.com!sneezy!nate From: nate@sneezy.sri.com (Nate Williams ) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.os2.advocacy Subject: Re: Linux thoroughly insulted by Infoworld! Date: 21 Jan 1995 00:21:54 GMT Organization: SRI Intl. Lines: 35 Message-ID: <3fpk32$80i@unix.sri.com> References: <950116203411@lambada> <1995Jan18.214037.6088@cs.cornell.edu> <3fk4hi$iu8@solaris.cc.vt.edu> <D2pK11.EJx@madge1.demon.co.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: sneezy.sri.com In article <D2pK11.EJx@madge1.demon.co.uk>, Mike Moreton <mmoreton@madge1.demon.co.uk> wrote: >matthew c. mead (mmead@goof.com) wrote: >: Can you call Linus and say, "My serial port isn't working >: right. What do I do?" No. Can you call up Sun, or BSDI and do the same? >: Yes. > >Of course it won't actually do you any good, because first they'll try to >say it's your fault, then they'll misuderstand the problem, and say that >it's fixed by a release which fixes some entirely different bug. If you >finally get them to accept the problem, they'll say that it'll be fixed in >the next release Hmm, this sounds like about 75% of the answers folks get to questions posted about Linux. All of the above happen as much if not more in Linux than they do in commerical releases, but with commercial releases you have a much better chance of stability at release time. If you don't count patchlevels as releases, then Linux is 'released' as often as commercial software. If you cound patchlevels as releases then Linux has many unusable/buggy releases which would cause most commercial vendors to go bankrupt. Free software is great, but there is more room for *supported* software in the commercial world than for free software. When my paycheck is depending on a pice of hardware/software, I want to *know* that it works, and commercial vendors provide me with guaranteed support that NONE of the free software folks will give me. Nate -- nate@FreeBSD.org | Do you think SRI cares what I say? They certainly nate@sneezy.sri.com | don't accept responsibility for my actions, so I work #: (406) 449-7662 | obviously don't represent them on Usenet. home #: (406) 586-0579 | *FreeBSD core member and all around tech. weenie*