Return to BSD News archive
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.bhp.com.au!mel.dit.csiro.au!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!daily-planet.execpc.com!news.sol.net!news.inc.net!trellis.wwnet.com!news.thenet.net!hunter.premier.net!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!fox.almaden.ibm.com!garlic.com!news.scruz.net!gjohnson
From: gjohnson@dream.season.com (Reality is a point of view)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: Historic Opportunity facing Free Unix (was Re: The Lai/Baker paper, benchmarks, and the world of free UNIX)
Date: 12 Apr 1996 07:19:43 GMT
Organization: season.com
Lines: 37
Message-ID: <slrn4ms10f.pm.gjohnson@dream.season.com>
References: <4ki055$60l@Radon.Stanford.EDU> <jdd.829261293@cdf.toronto.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 205.179.33.42
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.system:21233 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:556 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:3148 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:2947 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:17199 comp.os.linux.advocacy:45095
[talk of easy GUI, novice users, documentation, etc]
--- Familiar readers should skip to the last two paragraphs. ---
Documention and ease of use are important, especially to new
users. But so are killer apps. People will put up with a lot,
even new users, if there is a compelling reason. Killer apps
are generally developed by visionary individuals or well
financed teams. The well financed team needs a compelling
reason for their financier and _a stable development target_.
I'll skip the stable target rant and move right into the VM rant.
Things like the JavaVM and Lucent's Inferno/Brazil/TV movie of
the week promise just that for developers. _VM's are like GUI
ANSI C_. So odds are good that the killer apps might migrate
there because of an improved risk/reward ratio for financiers.
On a Popular Virtual Machine a killer app becomes the killer
app.
The role of the OS (and hardware) is then reduced to staying
out of the way. By that I mean cost, performance, reliability,
low guru requirements. So documentation is important, but so is
the need for the lack of documentation. I doubt that there are
many telephones on the entire planet that you or I would have
much trouble using. Maybe with the local dial tone, but not the
phone.
Even if the free source based OS's lose a bit of mind share in
the short term the post 'PVM that delivers' shakeout will be
ripe.
--
Gary Johnson "I'd a done sumpin too, but I ain't no Peckerton Ditinctive."
gjohnson@season.com
CAMPAIGN '96: Juck 'em if they can't fake a toke.